FIRST HBCU RHODES SCHOLAR RETURNS TO MOREHOUSE TO
SHARE TRAVELS AND INSPIRE YOUNG MOREHOUSE BROTHERS

ATLANTA, GA, May 5, 2000 - When the world was focused on Nagano, Japan during the 1998 winter Olympic Games, Nima Warfield '94 was weaving through the enormous crowds translating Japanese for USA Today reporters and photographers, giving them a crash course in Asian culture.

Not necessarily a high-brow or heady assignment for a Rhodes Scholar, but certainly another cog in the wheel that has become Warfield's life adventure. Several years after becoming the first African-American Rhodes Scholar from an historically black college or university, Warfield returns to Morehouse to share his travels and offer words of inspiration to a new class of Morehouse Men. Warfield will deliver the address for the College's 116th Commencement at 8 a.m. Sunday, May 21 on the Campus Green.

At 27, Warfield, who earned a second bachelor's degree from Oxford University and a master's degree from the University of London, is the youngest Commencement speaker in the College's history. Warfield is a copy editor for the Wall Street Journal. "Journalism was where I started," he said in the winter/spring edition of the College's Alumnus magazine. "I had a leaning toward journalism, but the scholarly focus I developed at Morehouse became so intense, I kind of left the media. I could have done the Ph.D. track, but I didn't feel that's where I needed to be at this juncture. I'm going to take the Wall Street Journal and run with it. I'm going to pursue as many opportunities as I can in publishing."

One of the most distinguished institutions of higher education, Morehouse College is the nation's only historically black, private liberal arts college for men. Founded in 1867, the College enrolls approximately 3,000 students and confers bachelor's degrees on more black men than any other institution in the world. In addition to offering 36 majors in the humanities, natural and social sciences, Morehouse provides a number of programs and activities to enhance its challenging liberal arts program, including the Leadership Center at Morehouse College, the Morehouse Research Institute, and the Andrew Young Center for International Affairs.

Prominent alumni who have given the Commencement address previously include: the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Peace Prize laureate and civil rights leader; Maynard H. Jackson, president of Jackson Securities and the first African-American mayor of Atlanta; Lerone Bennett Jr., executive editor of Ebony magazine; and Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, president of the Morehouse School of Medicine and former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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Media Contact:

Thonnia Lee
404-215-2680
Tlee@Morehouse.edu