As the first year of our newly-refined emphasis on targeting youth educational outreach draws to a close, we have a couple of celebratory ceremonies to announce upcoming this spring. Both are free and open to the public--as usual, of course.

We just request an RSVP from all guests. If you plan to attend either, please email your name and the number in your party to tolerance@rice.edu. Thanks!

The first is the Awards Ceremony for the prize-winning essayists in our Embracing Tolerance High School Essay Contest. This ceremony will run from 7:00 p.m.  - ca. 8:00 on Thursday, April 28th in the Farnsworth Pavilion at the Rice Memorial Center on campus.

The second is the unveiling of our participating students' Sacred Sites Quest mural at its permanent installation site on the front of the Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston building. This celebration of our SSQ students' work will take place from 1:00 p.m. - ca. 2:00 on Sunday, May 1st at IMGH on 3217 Montrose Blvd.

The Embracing Tolerance Essay Awards Ceremony on April 28th will feature the eight high school students who wrote prize-winning entries. More than 350 students from about 40 different high schools throughout greater Houston submitted essays. Our selection committee chose eight for special commendation, to be published both online and in print. The committee also identified another 20 students for Honorable Mention recognition. All 28 students to be honored on Thursday, April 28th will receive certificates of their achievement from the Boniuk Center. The 8 top essayists will also receive cash awards and share brief excerpts from their essays as they receive their prizes that night.

The mural unveiling celebration at 1:00 on May 1st will be the culminating capstone of our Sacred Sites Quest (SSQ) for our 24 participating high school students (from more than a dozen different schools in and around Houston). The mural's four panels will be conceived, designed, and executed by these students, under the aegis of our collaboration with the Museum of Cultural Arts Houston (MOCAH). The mural will depict the students' synthesis of the inspiration and learning they gleaned from their visits to more than ten different sacred sites around town.

Please feel free to join us for either one--or both. The quality of work that these 50 students have produced is really impressive. Whether their expressive medium is the printed word or the artwork depicted on their SSQ mural, these students have compelling messages to convey. Moreover, they tangibly embody our center's core mission "to nurture tolerance among people of all and no faiths, especially youth."

Sincerely,
Mike Pardee, Executive Director