By: Margaret Rung, Professor of History & Director, Center for New Deal Studies What can a POTUS and FLOTUS from the 1% teach us about the American Dream? A great deal, it turns out. Facing a … Read More about The Roosevelts and the American Dream
Featured Speakers
Common
Academy Award, Golden Globe, Emmy and Grammy-winning actor and musician, Common continues to break down barriers with a multitude of critically acclaimed, diverse roles, and continued success at the box office.
Common was most recently featured on Andra Day’s song for Open Road Films’ MARSHALL soundtrack, “Stand Up for Something,” co-written by Common and eight-time Academy Award-nominee Diane Warren. The original song has received Oscar, Grammy, NAACP, and Critic Choice Award nominations, as well as the “Hollywood Song Award” at the 2017 Hollywood Film Awards.
More than 10 years ago, Common committed his time and resources to help inner-city youth in his hometown of Chicago. The Common Ground Foundation reaches high school students through programs that focus on character development, social impact, healthy living, technology, financial literacy, creative arts and global leadership.
On average, Common Ground Foundation students have improved or maintained a 3.16 GPA and have a 100% graduation rate. Of this, 97% of seniors are attending a four-year college and the Common Ground Foundation’s students have completed more than 2,600 hours of community service.
Rebecca Traister
Rebecca Traister is writer at large for New York Magazine and the author of the New York Times best-seller All The Single Ladies, which was named a Notable Book of 2016 by The New York Times. Her previous book, Big Girls Don’t Cry, was a Times Notable Book of 2010 and the winner of the Ernesta Drinker Ballard Book Prize. She has also written for Elle, Salon, The Nation, The New Republic, The Washington Post and The New York Observer and has twice been a National Magazine Award finalist. She is a winner of the 2016 Hillman Prize for Analysis and Opinion Journalism. She lives in New York City.
Jamelle Bouie
Jamelle Bouie is Slate’s chief political correspondent and a political analyst for CBS News. Bouie reports from the front lines of the nation’s most significant news events, from civil unrest to political partisanship, and has emerged as a leading voice on U.S. politics, public policy, elections and race. In 2015, Forbes named him to its “30 Under 30 in Media” list as one of the individuals driving the ever-shifting landscape of news and content. He also regularly contributes to the weekly roundtable discussion on CBS’s “Face The Nation,” and his writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, TIME and The New Yorker.
Blog Posts
Conquering My American Dream
By Niya Weathers (BA Political Science, ’18) What is the American Dream to me? The American Dream is opportunity for all, the ability of our nation to provide us with basic public goods, along with … Read More about Conquering My American Dream
Pay It Forward: The American Dream
By Karla Ortiz (BA Political Science, ’18) Everyone living in this country has his or her own definition of what the American Dream means. The struggles we have surpassed and the ones we are facing … Read More about Pay It Forward: The American Dream
A Millennial Roosevelt Alum Contemplates the American Dream
It is a longstanding Italian custom to name your children after their grandparents. The tradition is a tremendous honor. It is also a way for a person’s memory to live on through another, even after … Read More about A Millennial Roosevelt Alum Contemplates the American Dream