Second International Conference on Children's Rights & Education for the 21st Century to Feature Keynote Speaker Donald E. Powell
 
(Corpus Christi, Texas)  The Second International Conference on Children's Rights and Education for the 21st Century  will take place in Corpus Christi, Texas from May 30 through June 2, on the at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi campus. There will be over 100 presentations and workshops by scholars and professionals from across the U.S. and around the world to discuss issues facing the next generation of youth. Mayor Henry Garrett has proclaimed May 30 - June 2 as the Corpus Christi Days for Youth & Education.

The conference is the conception of Dr. Dorothy S. McClellan, Regents Professor of Criminal Justice at A&M-Corpus Christi and Nikola Knez, president of the Croatian Society for Children’s Human Rights. While in Croatia on a Fulbright Fellowship 2002-2004 McClellan and Knez, conceived of the idea of calling people together from around the world to design an intelligent, caring future for young people. Their aim is to use this collective expertise, energy, and creativity to imagine that future. They want to develop a clear, focused agenda for 21st century youth. Central to their mission is the belief that the best way to secure world peace and promote democracy is to create an educated, open-minded leadership class among the next generation of youth.

The 24 keynote speakers and 100 presenters will project forward to 2020 from many disciplines. They will address the following questions: how will young people’s lives be affected by education, politics, economic disparity, culture, race, gender, technology, religion, media, energy, science, stem cell research, Supreme Court decisions, environmental and ecological conditions, war, drugs, crime, availability of healthy food and clean water; will young people enjoy the right to privacy, voice, and other democratic freedoms; toward what goals could we and should be aim;  what stands in the way of our achieving success; how might we intervene in the projected possibilities to change outcomes; and what are our individual, collective, and professional responsibilities in planning the future. At subsequent conferences, we will assess our progress toward our goals.  Each year new participants will add their voices and dreams to our discussions.

The keynote speaker is the Honorable Donald E. Powell, Federal Coordinator of Gulf Coast Rebuilding, Washington, D.C. and former Chairman of the Board of Regents for The Texas A&M University System. Powell is scheduled to speak on the issues facing children on Wednesday, May 31 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the University Center, Lone Star Ballroom.