A highly respected veteran journalist who covers Congress and national politics for McClatchy Newspapers is taking part in St. Olaf College classes this week as a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow.

Lawrence M. O'Rourke is meeting with St. Olaf students and faculty members throughout the week, discussing politics, the media, communication, globalization and career opportunities. He also will participate in the college's first annual Conference on Globalization and Social Responsibility on Friday, Feb. 16.

The Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows program brings leaders to the campuses of select liberal arts colleges. Fellows visit classes, meet students and faculty members, and give public presentations in their areas of expertise, including diplomacy, government, business and journalism.

The program is designed to help prepare students for the social, political and economic realities of the world. The visit by the Wilson Fellow lets students and faculty members gain a better understanding of the world, and allows the experts to more fully explain their views and experiences.

O'Rourke, who is an attorney as well as a journalist, will be a guest speaker in nine St. Olaf classes and will participate in a number of other meetings with St. Olaf students and faculty members.

O'Rourke also will participate in a discussion of careers, lifestyles and internships with students and members of the college's Career Development Center; will speak to students of the Political Awareness Committee; will discuss careers in journalism with editors and writers from the student newspaper and the Media Relations Office; and will talk with numerous faculty members during breakfast and luncheon meetings.

O'Rourke was chief of bureau and White House correspondent for the Philadelphia Bulletin from 1970 to 1980; worked for the U.S. Department of Education as deputy assistant secretary for policy and planning from 1980 to 1981; and was a writer, editor and consultant for the Carnegie Foundation for part of 1981.

He was White House correspondent and Washington columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from 1981 until 1991. Later that year he joined McClatchy Newspapers as chief congressional and national political correspondent.

He also has practiced law since he earned a J.D. degree in 1970 from Georgetown University Law Center and became a member of the District of Columbia Bar, doing pro bono legal representation in District of Columbia courts.

He has won numerous journalistic awards, including the Raymond Clapper Prize for reporting about infectious diseases; the Merriman Smith Prize; the National Press Foundation's Benjamin Franklin Award; and the National Headliner's Club award for investigative reporting. He has served as president of the White House Correspondents' Association and the Gridiron Club, and is a member of the National Press Club.

He earned a B.A. degree from Villanova University in 1959 and did graduate study in theater and political science at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Washington Journalism Center and the Horace Mann Learning Center.

The Woodrow Wilson Foundation has conducted programs in higher education since 1973. St. Olaf is one of the few colleges to participate in the program every year since its inception.