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Paul Wellstone to speak on Peace Corps anniversary, peace and justice endowment

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October 31, 2001

United States Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will speak at daily chapel services on Monday, Nov. 5, when St. Olaf College commemorates the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Peace Corps and celebrates the establishment of an endowment to support peace and justice studies at the college.

The service, which takes place at 10:10 a.m. in Boe Memorial Chapel, is free and open to the public. It will be broadcast at 11:10 a.m. on 89.3 WCAL-FM.

Alumni and faculty who have served in the Peace Corps will take part in the service. Since the founding of the Peace Corps in 1961, more than 391 St. Olaf alumni have served in the program. In January 2001, St. Olaf ranked fifth in the nation among the small colleges and universities that have provided volunteers to the program, and it was leading Minnesota for the number of Peace Corps volunteers currently in service, with 18. Today there are 21 alumni serving overseas with the Peace Corps.

The Nov. 5 occasion will also mark the establishment of The Kloeck-Jenson Endowment for Peace and Justice, instituted to honor the life and work of "a tireless crusader for peace and justice, and a servant leader." Scott Kloeck-Jenson, a 1987 magna cum laude graduate of St. Olaf, served with the Peace Corps in Lesotho, Africa, where he met and married Barbara Kloeck. On June 23, 1999, while on vacation in South Africa, they and their children, Zoe and Noah, were killed in a tragic automobile accident. Following their deaths, friends and family created an endowment that will fund academic initiatives that encourage a deeper study of peace and justice issues by students and faculty.

The endowment will also provide ongoing support for the Peace Prize Forum. Begun in 1989 by Augsburg College, Augustana College, Concordia College, Luther College and St. Olaf College in cooperation with the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, the annual forum focuses attention on affirmative acts of risk-taking in the service of peace and justice. It examines the complex dynamics of conflict and the challenges of peacemaking through appearances by Nobel Peace Prize laureates and other peacemakers, workshops and other presentations.

"November 5 is a chance for us to remember and honor a member of the community whose moral courage is an inspiration." said St. Olaf President Chris Thomforde, referring to Kloeck-Jenson, who was awarded the first Sargent Shriver Peaceworker Fellowship as well as two Foreign Language Fellowships, a Fulbright Scholarship and a MacArthur Scholar Award. "We want St. Olaf students to be agents of peace and justice in the world, and the generosity of Scott?s family and friends enable this calling of our academic community to a special kind of purposefulness."

The day's observances also will include a public lecture at 3:15 p.m. in the Viking Theater, Buntrock Commons, by Michael Schatzberg, University of Wisconsin-Madison, on "The Cultural Foundations of Political Legitimacy in Middle Africa" and an alumni panel discussion at 5:30 p.m. in the Valhalla Room, Buntrock Commons. Chaired by Arlen Erdahl, a 1953 graduate of St. Olaf who was a member of Congress for many years and a director of the Peace Corps, the panel will feature three alumni who will address the connection between their St. Olaf educations and their service in the Peace Corps. Both of these sessions are free and open to the public.

Paul Wellstone was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1990 after teaching political science at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., for 21 years. A member of the Foreign Relations Near East subcommittee, he also serves on the Agriculture Committee, the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, the Small Business Committee, the Indian Affairs Committee and the Veterans' Affairs Committee. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where he earned a B.A. in 1965 and a Ph.D. in 1969.

St. Olaf College prepares students to become responsible citizens of the world, fostering development of mind, body and spirit. A four-year, coeducational liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), St. Olaf has a student enrollment of 2,950 and a full-time faculty complement of approximately 300. It is one of Money Guide's top 100 "elite values in college education today," and it leads the nation's colleges in percentages of students who study abroad.

Contact Carole Leigh Engblom at 507-786-3315 or leigh@stolaf.edu.