[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 5838]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               THE WIEN INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 10, 2008

  Mr. MARKEY. Madam Speaker, Brandeis University in Waltham, 
Massachusetts, is celebrating a special anniversary this month, April 
11-13, 2008.
  It was 50 years ago that Massachusetts Senators John F. Kennedy and 
Leverett Saltonstall and former U.S. Ambassador George Kennan joined 
University leaders to help inaugurate a unique international exchange 
program.
  The Wien International Scholarship Program, established through a 
generous gift from philanthropists Lawrence and Mae Wien, was designed 
to further worldwide understanding by bringing students from around the 
globe to Brandeis to study in an atmosphere of cooperative learning.
  Looking back over the last half-century, it is clear that the program 
has had an impact on the international community that even its founders 
could not have envisioned. Since its founding with an inaugural class 
of 30 students from 16 countries, the Wien program has grown in stature 
and worldwide recognition. More than 800 students from over 100 
countries have come to Brandeis as Wien Scholars.
  Through the years, the Wien program has produced an impressive array 
of enlightened world leaders dedicated to making the world a better 
place. Wien Scholars have held important positions at the United 
Nations, served in prominent roles in national governments from Japan 
to Kenya to Iceland to the Philippines, and pursued life-saving medical 
breakthroughs. They have also distinguished themselves in the arts, 
business, education, law, and science.
  I urge all of us, especially at this time of increasing ethnic and 
religious tensions around the world, to use the fiftieth anniversary of 
the Wien program to uphold the legacy of its founders by promoting the 
principles of understanding, tolerance, and acceptance.

                          ____________________