About our featured speaker Wes Moore.
    Wes Moore graduated Phi Theta Kappa as a commissioned officer from Valley Forge Military College in 1998 and Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hopkins University in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in international relations. He also completed a degree in international relations from Oxford University in 2004 where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

    Moore was a paratrooper and Captain in the United States Army, serving a combat tour of
duty in Afghanistan with the elite 1st Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division in 2005-2006. After that time, he became a White House Fellow in 2006, serving as a Special Assistant to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Following his time at the White House, he became an investment professional in New York at Citigroup, focusing on global technology and alternative investments.

    A strong supporter of veterans, Moore is also passionate about examining the roles education, mentoring and public service play in the lives of American youth. He founded an organization called STAND! through Johns Hopkins that works with Baltimore youth involved in the criminal justice system.

    Moore was three years old when his father, a respected radio and television host died.  His mother, hoping for a better future for her family, made great sacrifices to send Moore and his sisters to private school. Caught between the affluence of his classmates and the struggles of his neighbors, he began to act out. He succumbed to poor grades, suspensions, and delinquencies. Desperate to reverse Moore’s behavior, his mother sent him to military school in Pennsylvania. After trying to escape four times, he finally decided to stop railing against the system and become accountable for his actions. By graduation six years later, he was company commander overseeing 125 cadets.

    Seeking to help other young people to redirect their lives, Moore is committed to being a positive influence and helping kids find the support they need to enact change. Pointing out that a high school student drops out every nine seconds, he says that public servants—the teachers, mentors and volunteers who work with our youth—are as imperative to our national standing and survival as are our armed forces. “Public service does not have to be an occupation,” he says, “but it must be a way of life.”