Focus on Citizenship for next Live Like Lincoln Lecture
Event Oct. 25 Features Argentine-Born Professor

 

[October 24, 2018] 

LINCOLN 

The Lincoln Heritage Museum is again teaming up with the Abraham Lincoln Center for Character Development at Lincoln College to host the “Learn from Lincoln, Live like Lincoln” lecture series for 2018. The next event will be Oct. 25, at 5:30 pm at the Johnston Center for Performing Arts on the Lincoln College campus. It is free and the public is encouraged to attend and participate.

The title for this year’s series is “Responsible Citizenship,” which coincides with the theme of the special exhibit now on display at the Lincoln Heritage Museum.

The second lecture in the series will be from the perspective of naturalized citizens and what citizenship means to them. The featured panelist will be Dr. Marcelo J. Nieto, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville.

There will be a discussion revolving around the principle of responsible citizenship and the role that average citizens can play in the societal and political process, and the necessity of citizen engagement to the continual progress of our country.

The ever changing definition of citizenship as well as the challenges facing citizens in this state and across the nation will be also explored. The 2018 installment of the series has the endorsement of the Illinois Bicentennial Commission, which is celebrating the 200th anniversary of statehood this year.

A chemist and university professor who has been active in promoting access to education for underserved populations, Dr. Nieto was born and raised in Cordoba, Argentina. After earning his PhD in Chemistry, he moved to the United States to pursue postdoctoral studies at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). After working at Ole Miss for about six years, he accepted a position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the SIUE School of Pharmacy, where he actively participates in many committees and service projects.

Outside the university, he is an active member of St. Boniface Catholic church and participates in the Hispanic committee of the Springfield Diocese.

His passion is for education and making sure underserved and at-risk children remain in school, as well as advocating for higher education for all. He has organized workshops targeting Hispanics and applied for grants to help with the promotion and development of health specializations for bilingual students, in particular Hispanics.

“We are offering this speaker series to highlight the role that each American citizen plays in developing their community in the effort to make it better just like Abraham Lincoln did in Springfield in the 1840s and 1850s,” said Anne Moseley, Lincoln Heritage Museum director.

The theme of citizenship is also carried through a special exhibit at the Lincoln Heritage Museum in on display through 2018. The exhibit features items relating to Lincoln as a citizen including a document relating to his Black Hawk War experience, surveying equipment like that Lincoln used, and a check for his service as an Illinois state legislator.

The lecture series co-sponsor, the Abraham Lincoln Center for Character Development, began its operations at Lincoln College in 2016. The center, located in the Lincoln Heritage Museum at Lincoln College, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to being a catalyst, resource center, and national leader for character development initiatives. One of the character pillars the center emphasizes is that of citizenship.

The 2018 installment of the Learn from Lincoln, Live like Lincoln lecture series has the endorsement of the Illinois Bicentennial Commission, which is celebrating the 200th anniversary of statehood this year.

The general public is encouraged to attend all of the series, and admission is free. For more information visit https://museum.lincolncollege.edu or call the museum at 217-735-7399.

[Mark Gordon
Public Relations and Media Manager
Lincoln College]