Four-time Olympian Joetta Clark Diggs to speak on March 16

Bethlehem, Pa., March 2, 2016— Moravian College will celebrate Women’s History Month in March with a series of talks that highlight the past and present issues that women face. The month will host trips and discussions that are open to the public and admission is free of charge.

Moravian College students will attend a talk by 4-time Olympian Joetta Clark Diggs on Wednesday, March 16, in Johnston Hall at8:00 p.m. Diggs represented the United States at the 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000 Olympic games as a half-mile runner. During her career running in both the 800 and 1,500-meter competitions, Diggs was ranked among the Top-10 Americans for over 21 years. From 1991 until 1998, she was ranked in the Top-10 in the world and was an 11-time USA National Champion.

Since her Olympic years she has contributed to the community through her motivational speaking, role as a businesswoman, author, television personality, and advocate for children’s health and fitness initiatives.

“The presentation is Mission Accomplished, focusing on work ethic and commitment to achieving goals. As the keynote speaker, Joetta Clark Diggs will highlight her journey as a female athlete in the Olympics,” said Sara Steinman, assistant athletics director. “I am eager to hear her speak to our Moravian College community because she is a world-class athlete and a phenomenal speaker. She is the perfect person to help us celebrate Women in Athletics Week because she is the epitome of success and represents female athletes so well.”

Additionally, in honor of the Women in Athletics Week the film Million Dollar Baby will be run in the HUB Pavilion for students on Thursday, March 17 at 7:30 p.m.

A powder puff football tournament, hosted by the women-only flag football team, will be held on the soccer field behind the HUB on Friday, March 18, at 4:00 p.m.

The Moravian Athletics Department is hosting a free sports clinic to the community for girls grades K-8 on Saturday, March 19. Following the two-hour skills and drill session, participants are encouraged to join Moravian College student athletes for lunch.

Author Asali Solomon will visit Moravian College on Tuesday, March 22 for a talk in Reeves After Words Café at 4:15 p.m. She will discuss her story collection Get Down and her novel Disgruntled. An assistant professor of English at Haverford College, Solomon received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award for the stories later collected in Get Down, her first book; the volume was also a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. In 2007 she was named one of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35.

The film, He Named Me Malala, will run on Tuesday, March 22 in the HUB Prosser Auditorium at 7:00 p.m. The documentary is based on the Nobel Peace Prize Winner Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban and severely wounded by a gunshot when returning home on her school bus in Pakistan’s Swat Valley.

Moravian College students Alyssa Boursiquot ’18, Christelle Reglas ’16, Monica Richardon ’18, and Tanisha Pierre ’19 will present a workshop on inter-sectional feminism on Saturday, March 19 in the Haupert Union Bulding, UBC room at 12:00 p.m.

That night, the community is welcome to attend a presentation on the mission of the NAACP hosted by Esther Lee the President of NAACP Bethlehem Chapter in the UBC Room, Haupert Union Building, at 7:30 p.m.

The final event will be the featured film No Más Bebés (No More Babies) onWednesday, March 30 in the HUB UBC Room at 11:45 a.m. The movie follows the story of immigrant mothers who sued county doctors, the state, and the U.S. government after they were pushed into sterilization while giving birth at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center during the 1960s and 70s.

Women’s History Month is sponsored by AAUW, Africana Studies, Arts and Lecture Committee, Athletic Department, Econ and Business Department, English Department, IN-FOCUS: Poverty and Inequality, Intercultural Advancement and Global Inclusion, History Department and Club, MAC, Nursing Department, Office of Religious Life, Spanish Club, and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Moravian College encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. Anyone who anticipates needing any type of accommodation or who has questions about the physical access provided should contact Intercultural Advancement at madridl@moravian.edu prior to the event.
 
Moravian College is a private coeducational liberal arts college, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For over 270 years, the Moravian College degree has been based on a liberal arts curriculum where literature, history, cultural values and global issues, ethics, and aesthetic expression and the social sciences are infused with multidisciplinary perspectives. Visit www.moravian.edu to learn more about how the Moravian College liberal arts curriculum prepares its students for life-long success.