Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Wes Moore headlines PCC’s District In-Service

Photos and story by James Hill

PCC welcomes national bestselling author and community advocate Wes Moore to speak at District In-Service on Monday, Sept. 19 where he’ll kick-off the college’s 50th year.

Please, remember the District In-Service is for staff and faculty only.

Moore is the author of the bestseller, “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates.”In 2000, The Baltimore Sun ran an article about how Moore, despite his troubled childhood, had just been named a Rhodes Scholar. At the same time, The Sun was running stories about another man from the same neighborhood who had been arrested for murder of an off-duty police officer. In an uncanny turn, he also was named Wes Moore.

Moore realized that in their two stories was a much larger tale about the consequences of personal responsibility and the imperativeness of education and community.  “The Other Wes Moore” is inspired by his experience and findings.

“Wes Moore is helping us kick off a full year of celebration that will include festivities at every campus, the grand opening of our Newberg Center, artistic and theatrical productions, a gala for the PCC Foundation and, next spring, the 50th-anniversary graduation,” said PCC District President Preston Pulliams. “You can find out more, and find out how to take part in our service learning challenge, at 50th.pcc.edu.”

A subject of a Time Magazine cover story, Moore is a popular author among a growing number of colleges assigning “common reads” — books that all incoming freshmen must read over the summer and prepare to discuss in their first week on campus. NPR highlighted the common read format and Wes’s Moore’s book.

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. At Johns Hopkins, the Maryland College Football Hall of Fame honored him. He completed a master’s of letters in international relations from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 2004.

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 2005–06. He served as a special assistant to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and later served as an investment professional in New York City, focusing on global technology and alternative investments.

“It’s going to be an incredible year and In-Service is our kick-off event,” Pulliams added. “We’ll see you there. And welcome to another great academic year at PCC.”

As part of the 50th kick-off celebration and the theme of service to the community, staff and faculty are taking part in a service-learning project – Children’s Book Bank. This is part of PCC’s Days of Service – a 50,000-hour service challenge.