Issue: Summer 2015 | Posted: June 8, 2015
Brooks to Headline 18th Annual Scholarship Banquet
David Brooks - 漏 2011 David Burnett
New York Times columnist and author David Brooks will be the keynote speaker for 51社区鈥檚 18th annual Scholarship Banquet Oct. 6 at the Carl Perkins Civic Center in Jackson, Tenn.
Brooks鈥� books include The Road to Character, The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement, Bobos in Paradise (a New York Times bestseller) and On Paradise Drive. He is a regular analyst on PBS NewsHour and NPR鈥檚 All Things Considered.
鈥淒avid Brooks is a trusted and valued commentator on American life and culture,鈥� Union President Samuel W. 鈥淒ub鈥� Oliver said. 鈥淗is most recent book, The Road to Character, is one that resonates with all of us who care about Union鈥攁 place committed to the virtuous life and to living a life filled with meaning and purpose.
鈥淗is presence at the 2015 Union Scholarship Banquet will, I鈥檓 convinced, be both an encouragement to us all and a challenge to press on as we seek to live out our mission and core values.鈥�
Brooks served as senior editor at The Weekly Standard and has been a contributing editor at Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly. He worked at The Wall Street Journal for nine years in a variety of positions, including op-ed editor.
Brooks is currently teaching a course at Yale
University. He holds honorary degrees from Williams
College, New York University, Brandeis University
and Occidental College, among others. In 2010, Brooks
became a member of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences.
The annual Scholarship Banquet has become one of the premier events in West Tennessee each year and is Union鈥檚 primary fund raising event for its student scholarship fund. Previous speakers have included Tony Blair, George H.W. Bush, Margaret Thatcher, Condoleezza Rice, Mikhail Gorbachev, Laura Bush, Rudolph Giuliani, Colin Powell and Ben Carson, among others.
Dinner will begin at 6:30 p.m. and the program will start at 7:30 p.m. Sponsorship opportunities for the event are available at all levels. For ticket information, including table sponsorships and individual balcony seating, contact Union鈥檚 Office of Institutional Advancement at (731) 661-5050 or visit uu.edu/events/scholarshipbanquet.
Huckabee praises a Union education
Fox News host and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee spoke about personal morality and the value of Christian education at Union University鈥檚 17th annual Scholarship Banquet Oct. 7 at the Carl Perkins Civic Center.
Huckabee said he was delighted to assist Union because he graduated from another Southern Baptist liberal arts college, Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas.
As the first male in his family to attend college, Huckabee was dependent on scholarships.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 have a trust fund,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ll I could do was trust God to help me fund it, and that was my trust fund.鈥�
Huckabee also worked full time as a disc jockey at local radio station, studying while the records played. His hard-earned education has paid off, he said.
鈥淪tudents who go to a school like 51社区 will have an education that will put them on par with students who go to any Ivy League university in America,鈥� Huckabee said, citing his personal experience debating Harvard Law graduates.
Union students will have an additional advantage over their secular peers, Huckabee said: 鈥淎 person is far better off if they are prepared not only in their minds but in their spirits... We鈥檙e living in an age where people have utterly rejected God鈥檚 truth and are proud of it.鈥�
Huckabee said students need to be able to defend their faith in an increasingly secular world, a skill Union will give them.