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PRESS RELEASE
For more information, please contact: Gwen Osborne, director of public
affairs, (312) 906-5251
Illinois State Senator Barack Obama to address Chicago-Kent grads
More than 350 will receive J.D. degrees at May 25 ceremonies
at McCormick Place
CHICAGO–May 12, 2003 –- Approximately
350 students from Chicago-Kent College of Law will receive Juris Doctor
degrees at commencement exercises on Sunday, May 25, at 2 p.m. Commencement
will be held in the Lakeside Ballroom at McCormick Place Lakeside Center,
2301 S. Lake Shore Drive, in Chicago. Illinois State Senator Barack
Obama (D-Chicago) will deliver the commencement address.
 Senator
Obama represents the 13th State Senate District, which includes Chicago's
South Shore, Hyde Park and Kenwood neighborhoods, part of the 10th Ward
in Southeast Chicago, Streeterville, the Gold Coast and parts of downtown.
He was first elected to the Illinois General Assembly in 1996 and is
currently serving his third term. Senator Obama chairs the Senate Public
Health and Welfare Committee.
Prior to his election, Senator Obama served as Illinois Executive Director
of PROJECT VOTE!, an effort that added over 100,000 registered voters
to the Illinois rolls for the 1992 election. He received the 1995 Legal
Eagle Award from IVI-IPO for his work in bringing Illinois into compliance
with the National Voter Registration Act (Motor-Voter). Working with
former U.S. Senator Paul Simon in 1998, Senator Obama was one of four state
legislators who crafted Illinois' toughest-ever campaign finance reform
law.
Obama received his B.A. in Political Science from Columbia University.
He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, where
he served as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law
Review and was a member of the Executive Board of the Black Law Students
Association. He is author of a memoir, Dreams From My Father: A Story
of Race and Inheritance.
Senator Obama works as a civil rights attorney with the firm Miner,
Barnhill and Galland. He is also a senior lecturer at the University
of Chicago Law School, where he teaches constitutional law.
Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute
of Technology, a private, Ph.D.-granting institution with programs in
engineering, science, psychology, architecture, business, design and
law. Last year, Chicago-Kent educated more than 1,200 students from
45 states and more than 100 colleges and universities.
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