(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)September 9, 2009

Jeffrey Zaslow, Co-Author, of The Last Lecture to Appear Sept. 16

(Mahwah) – Award winning writer of the Wall Street Journal column “Moving On,” and co-author of the #1 New York Times Best-Seller The Last Lecture, Jeffrey Zaslow will be the guest speaker at Ramapo College’s Opening Convocation.  The Convocation will be held on Wednesday September 16 at 1p.m. and is to be located in the Arena at the Bill Bradley Sports and Recreation Center on campus.

The Last Lecture is based on the final lecture of Randy Pausch which was given just after he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given only six months to live.  The lecture, entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” discussed the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, and of seizing every moment.  Like Zaslow’s column, The Last Lecture draws on the idea of living and finding what matters most to you.  He chose Pausch’s lecture as the subject because “he has created a beat unlike almost any other in journalism.” This book expands on the famous lecture and inspires its audience to live each day to its fullest potential.

Ramapo College’s incoming Class of 2012 is reading The Last Lecture this summer and will begin the Fall semester discussing the book in their First Year Seminar Course.  This seminar is designed to prepare students for the college-level work that will be expected from them in subsequent courses.

Zaslow graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1980 with a degree in creative writing.  He then began working for the Journal in 1983, but in 187 entered a contest to get an angle on a cover story about the replacement of Anne Landers at the Chicago Sun-Times and won.  After 14 years with the Sun-Times, Zaslow decided to return to the Journal.

In 2000, Zaslow received the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award for using his column as a means of running programs to benefit 47,000 disadvantaged college students.  Then, in 2003, he was recognized as producing the best general-interest column in a newspaper with over 100,000 copies in circulation by the National Society of Columnists, and won the award again in 2005.  As the popularity of the column “Moving On” continued increase, Zaslow received the Distinguished Column Writing Award from the New York Newspaper Publishers Association.

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About Ramapo College

Ramapo College of New Jersey is the state’s premier public liberal arts college and is committed to academic excellence through interdisciplinary and experiential learning, and international and intercultural understanding. The comprehensive college is situated among the beautiful Ramapo Mountains, is within commuting distance to New York City, was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America by CondeNast Traveler, and boasts the best on-campus housing in New Jersey per Niche.com. Established in 1969, Ramapo College offers bachelor’s degrees in the arts, business, data science, humanities, social sciences and the sciences, as well as in professional studies, which include business, education, nursing and social work. In addition, the College offers courses leading to teacher certification at the elementary and secondary levels, and offers graduate programs leading to master’s degrees in Accounting, Applied Mathematics, Business Administration, Contemporary Instructional Design, Computer Science, Creative Music Technology, Data Science, Educational Leadership, Nursing, Social Work and Special Education, as well as a Doctor of Nursing Practice.

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