Musicians perform to help Iraqi refugees come to campus this fall

Release Date: 05/22/09

Musicians from The College of St. Scholastica will stage a concert to raise money to enable two Iraqi refugees to study at the College beginning this fall.

The benefit concert, entitled "One World," will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 2, in the Mitchell Auditorium on campus. The event is open to the public; donations are welcome.

Proceeds will help cover transportation and other expenses for Mohammed Al-Suraih and Mustafa Saleem. They are from Bagdad but are living as displaced persons in Damascus, Syria.

St. Scholastica will provide four-year scholarships to the students, covering the costs of tuition, room and board.

"But we need additional funds to cover their airfare, health insurance, books and personal expenses," said Tom Homan, St. Scholastica's director of International Education.

"One World" performers will include St. Scholastica Music Department faculty members Bill Bastian, Marianne Connelly, Jeremy Craycraft, LeAnn House, Shelley Gruskin, Jerry Kaldor, and Penny Schwarze, as well as local musician Mary Bridget Lawson.

They will provide a variety of music including folk, baroque, blues and pop on steel drums, Irish tin whistle, guitar, harpsichord, and recorder.

"We want to support the College's effort to bring these Iraqi students to St. Scholastica by sharing our talents and providing a wonderful, eclectic evening of music and fun," said Schwarze, a Music Department professor and event coordinator.

St. Scholastica's effort is part of the Iraqi Student Project, a collaboration of American colleges, universities and others working to educate young Iraqis whose families left Iraq temporarily as a result of the violence there. The students will return to Iraq to help rebuild their country.

The Iraqi Student Project is already underway at 18 institutions across the country.

For more information or to donate online visit www.css.edu/iraqibenefit.xml. For information about the Iraqi Student Project contact Homan at (218) 733-2214.

Donations by check are also being accepted. Make checks payable to The College of St. Scholastica with the words "Iraqi Student Project" in the memo line. Send to: Institutional Advancement, The College of St. Scholastica, 1200 Kenwood Ave., Duluth, MN 55811.