The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation Announces December Speaker Series Event

ATLANTA, Dec. 2, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Thursday, December 4, 2014, The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation Speaker Series will host an event on youth leadership featuring New York Times bestselling author, Wes Moore, and participants from the American Explorers program. The event will be held at The Arthur M. Blank Family Office in Atlanta.

The Speaker Series program, "Runways to Leadership: Preparing young leaders for the challenges ahead," will introduce Wes Moore, youth advo­cate, Army com­bat vet­eran, social entre­pre­neur and bestselling author of "The Other Wes Moore;" along with young leaders from Atlanta who participated in the first year of The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation's American Explorers program, a 20-day summer wilderness experience in Emigrant, Montana that offers young men and women of high school age the opportunity to explore their potential as leaders. Together, they will share their personal stories of leadership and reflect on the ways we can all bring out the potential that lives within every young man and woman to make their tomorrow better than it is today.

The event is by invitation only. Seating at the event is limited. For more information, please contact Debbie Montgomery at [email protected].

About Wes Moore:
Born in 1978, Wes and his sis­ters were raised by their wid­owed mother. Despite early aca­d­e­mic and behav­ioral strug­gles, he grad­u­ated Phi Theta Kappa in 1998 as a com­mis­sioned offi­cer from Val­ley Forge Mil­i­tary Col­lege, and Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity in 2001, where he also played foot­ball and earned a bachelor's degree in Inter­na­tional Rela­tions. He then became a Rhodes Scholar, study­ing Inter­na­tional Rela­tions at Oxford University.

After his stud­ies, Wes, a para­trooper and Cap­tain in the United States Army, served a com­bat tour of duty in Afghanistan with the 1st Brigade of the 82nd Air­borne Divi­sion. Wes then served as a White House Fel­low to Sec­re­tary of State Con­deleezza Rice. He serves on the board of the Iraq Afghanistan Vet­er­ans of Amer­ica (IAVA), Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity, and founded an orga­ni­za­tion called STAND! that works with Bal­ti­more youth involved in the crim­i­nal jus­tice system.

For additional information on Wes Moore, please visit http://theotherwesmoore.com/.

About American Explorers:
American Explorers is a newly created, non-profit organization created and sponsored by The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. The American Explorers program is designed to inspire and educate young men and women from both Atlanta and Montana to be effective leaders, educators, community-builders, entrepreneurs, and stewards of the earth. The program begins with a 20-day, expedition-based, summer leadership experience in Paradise Valley, Montana. Following the initial summer experience, students continue to develop their skills during the school year and in subsequent summers as part of a four-year leadership development journey.

For more information on American Explorers, please visit https://www.facebook.com/americanexplorers1.

About The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation Speaker Series:
By convening individuals around issues, innovations and ideas that will shape the quality of life for families in Atlanta and beyond, the Blank Family Foundation Speaker Series aspires to spur civic action and citizen involvement for positive change in people's lives.

Learn more at http://blankfoundation.org/speaker-series.

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SOURCE The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation