Fattah Will Address Graduates at Philadelphia University, Earn Commencement Honors at Three Campuses in May

PHILADELPHIA, April 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA) will deliver the Spring Commencement addresses at Philadelphia University and Elizabeth City (N.C.) State University in May. He will receive honorary degrees next month from both institutions as well as from Lincoln University.

Fattah will address graduating seniors at Philadelphia University on May 16. The university will award the Congressman the honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering.

"We are so pleased that Representative Fattah, who has championed numerous measures to help students both aspire to and afford a college or university education, will be addressing our graduates at this year's Commencement," said Philadelphia University President Stephen Spinelli Jr., Ph.D.  "I'm sure his leadership on these important issues has helped many students aim for and achieve a higher education degree, and all the benefits that accrue from that."

Congressman Fattah said, "I am honored by the invitation to address the 2010 graduating class of future leaders of our city and our nation. I look forward to Spring Commencement at Philadelphia University, one of our greatest local institutions of higher learning."

On May 8, the Congressman will travel to eastern North Carolina to deliver the Commencement address and receive an honorary degree from Elizabeth City State University. The historically black school, one of 16 institutions of the University of North Carolina, offers baccalaureate, graduate, and professional programs for a diverse student body of about 3,300.

Lincoln University, in Oxford, Penna., is awarding Congressman Fattah an honorary doctorate at its May 2 Commencement exercises.

Fattah, whose 2nd District includes Philadelphia University, has won numerous honors and recognition as an innovative and effective advocate for education reform throughout his 27-year career in Congress and the Pennsylvania Legislature.

He is the Congressional architect of GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs), the largest pre-college awareness program serving more than 10 million students and providing more than $3 billion toward the educational advancement and college readiness of low-income students, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

In the 111th Congress, Fattah wrote the American Opportunity Tax Credit, funded at $14 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act enacted last year. The legislation provides a $2,500 partially refundable tax credit for tuition and other higher education expenses for college students or their parents for tax years 2009 and 2010.

Congressman Fattah, who attended schools in his hometown from elementary to post-graduate, earned the Masters Degree of Government Administration (M.G.A.) from the University of Pennsylvania, Fels School of State and Local Government, in 1986. He is the recipient of the Samuel S. Fels Award for Alumni Achievement from Penn's Fels Center of Government, awarded in 2000, "honoring his distinguished leadership and numerous accomplishments in public service."

SOURCE Office of Congressman Chaka Fattah

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