MONMOUTH, ILLINOIS (April 19, 2024) — Illinois Speaker of the House Welch (above) to deliver Monmouth's Midwest Matters Lecture
Illinois Speaker of the House Representative Emanuel "Chris" Welch will deliver this year's Monmouth College Midwest Matters Lecture.
Welch will speak at 1PM, April 26, in the Hewes Library Studio Theater, which is on the lower level of Hewes Library. His talk is free and open to the public.
Welch, who has represented the 7th District in the Chicago area since 2013, was elected the seventieth speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives in January 2021. The first Black to serve in the position, Welch has also served as chair of the House Executive Committee and before that chaired the Higher Education Committee.
As state representative, Speaker Welch has focused on improving classroom education, creating jobs, helping the state's most vulnerable residents, and streamlining state government. Welch was the chief sponsor of several pieces of historic legislation, including the law bringing cursive writing back into schools; the Historic Illinois Trust Act, which made Illinois a more welcoming state for immigrants; and the Homeless Bill of Rights.
A leading voice for adding people of color to the boards of publicly-held corporations, Welch sponsored landmark legislation that requires Illinois corporations to annually disclose their board composition.
He has received several awards for his legislative record, including the prestigious Zeke Giorgi Award from the AFL-CIO and the Friend and Education Award from the Illinois Education Association.
Prior to being elected to the General Assembly, Welch served twelve years on the Proviso Township High School Board of Education, including ten years as board chair. Welch led the Proviso School Board in the creation of the Proviso Math and Science Academy, a school recognized by Chicago Magazine and US News and World Report.
A graduate of Proviso West High School, Northwestern University and The John Marshall Law School, Welch is a 2016 inductee into the John Marshall Law School Wall of Fame.
His chief of staff is 2012 Monmouth graduate Jaclyn Driscoll (above).
Sid Stockdale, son of Vice Adm. James Stockdale, to discuss his new memoir April 24
Sid Stockdale, the son of the late Vice Admiral James and Sybil Stockdale, will be on Monmouth College's campus April 24 to speak about his new book.
Free and open to the public, the talk will be held at 4PM in Room 276 of the Center for Science and Business. It is sponsored by the College's Wackerle Center for Career, Leadership, and Fellowships. The center also oversees the James and Sybil Stockdale Fellows Program, a prestigious scholarship, leadership, service, and enrichment program for Monmouth students.
Titled A World Apart: Growing Up Stockdale During Vietnam, Stockdale's memoir takes a deep dive into the emotional and political cauldron he entered when his father's Navy fighter jet was shot down over North Vietnam in 1965. His father was held as a prisoner of war for the next seven years at the infamous Hanoi Hilton.
A member of Monmouth College's Class of 1946, the elder Stockdale was the most senior naval officer held captive by the North Vietnamese, and in 1976 he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his remarkable heroics as a POW during the Vietnam War.
Stockdale, who retired from the Navy in 1979, was a candidate for US Vice-President in 1992 on Ross Perot's independent ticket. The Stockdale Center, the College's student union, is named in his honor. Stockdale died in 2005 at the age of 81, and Sybil died in 2015 at the age of ninety.
During his April 24 talk, the younger Stockdale will discuss how he emerged from his father's ordeal as a POW and how the family successfully reunited and rebuilt its life together.
"I think that it is extremely impactful for our James and Sybil Stockdale Fellows to hear from Sid Stockdale and learn more about his parents," said Marnie Steach, director of the Wackerle Center. "The opportunity to connect more personally to the family for which the program is named allows our students to have a better appreciation for the leadership exhibited by both Vice Adm Stockdale and his wife during and after the Vietnam War."
Monmouth College to host April 25 event focusing on interfaith dialogue
Bringing people of different beliefs together and creating a higher level of understanding is the goal of a special Monmouth College event on April 25.
Three religious leaders from the area will participate in "Building Community through Interfaith Dialogue," which will be held at 7PM, April 25, in Dahl Chapel and Auditorium. The discussion is free and open to the public.
The speakers will be the Rev. John Huxtable, Monmouth College chaplain; Rabbi Jennie Bunde, the spiritual leader of Temple Shalom, a Reform synagogue in Galesburg; and Imam Bachir Djehiche, religious director of the Quad Cities Islamic Center in Moline.
Joshua Gentzke, Monmouth professor of philosophy and religious studies, will moderate the event.
"Catholic theologian Hans Kung has a quote: 'No peace among the nations without peace among the religions. No peace among the religions without dialogue between the religions,'" said Huxtable. "I read that quote just a few days ago, and I thought, 'That would've been great to have on our poster.' That's essentially what we're doing with our event — introducing people to people of other faiths and helping us all understand the commonalities we share. We have more similarities than differences."
