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Press Releases | |
May 20, 2004
Friends World Program of Long Island University Graduates 47 at Senior Recognition/Commencement Day
Two Distinguished Alumni to be Honored at Saturday’s CeremonyContact:
Patricia Conway
631-287-8313Southampton, NY- With areas of concentration from holistic healing to alternative education, The Friends World Program (FWP) of Long Island University will graduate 47 seniors at their Senior Recognition/Commencement Day ceremonies on Saturday, May 22. The all-day ceremony begins at
9 a.m. with welcome remarks by Robert Glass, Dean of Friends World and Southampton College Provost Daniel Rodas and will include senior presentations in the morning followed by award presentations, speakers and diplomas in the afternoon. Two distinguished alumni will be honored.
Matthew Cassetta, a 1992 graduate, studied at the North American and Latin American Centers and completed a six-month independent study in Venezuela in June 1991. He went on to complete a thesis on strategies for international environmental conservation of the United Nations, under the guidance and support of his adviser, Kathleen Modrowski, now the Director of the North American Center, based at Southampton College. After graduating from Friends World, Cassetta earned a Masters degree in environmental science and entered the Foreign Service, completing two overseas tours with the Department of State in Nicaragua and Brazil. Currently living in Washington D.C., Cassetta assists in monitoring several international marine conservation treaties. This summer, he plans to take up the position of Regional Environmental Liaison of the United States for 24 countries of West and Central Africa, helping to coordinate efforts in protected areas and rural resource management.
David Lerner was a member of the first Friends World College class. He started his Friends World studies in 1971 with an orientation at White Pines, Georgia and then completed several interesting projects: working with attorney William Kunstler defending the "Harlem 4" in New York; spending time at the Appalachian Folk Life Center with Don West in West Virginia; working with Fundacion Amour, a small community of gamines (street gang children) of Bogotá, Columbia; working with a legal defense team in Madrid, Spain; tutoring a child in the hills of Andalusia in Spain; and working at a Community Law Center in London. He also spent time at the Latin American Center in Cuernavaca where he was introduced to Yoga, immersed in Spanish language and visited various archeological sites. Lerner also studied at the European Center in Norwich, England. Upon graduation, he went to work at the Center for Constitutional Rights–first as a legal secretary and then later as their press representative where he publicized many high-profile lawsuits. In 1989, Lerner started his own public relations firm, Riptide Communications, where his clients have included: David Ronald Chandler, the federal death-row inmate pardoned by President Clinton; an organization for restaurant employees thrown out of work by September 11; United for Peace and Justice, the leading anti-war group, human rights and civil liberties groups challenging the Bush Administration’s policies on several fronts including the indefinite detention of those held on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and corporate accountability organizations. Tim Robbins, the actor, has called him "the best progressive publicist in the United States."
The Friends World program, founded by the Quakers in 1965, is based at Southampton College of Long Island University and has centers in China, Costa Rica, England, India and Japan. Students in the program develop skills and competencies in a major academic field by combining research, hands-on experience and analytical writing under the guidance of the faculty. The program also requires classroom study, immersion language training and independent fieldwork in at least two foreign cultures. This year, 47 students will earn their Bachelor of Arts degrees.