Former TCU Football Player and Rhodes Scholar to Deliver Fall Convocation Address at Fayetteville State University
Fayetteville State University (FSU) will kick off the academic year with Fall Convocation on Tuesday, September 10, 2019, at 2:00 p.m. in the J.W. Seabrook Auditorium. Guest speaker will be former Texas Christian University football player and Rhodes Scholar Caylin Moore.
Moore was raised in Carson, California and spent most of his childhood participating in activities like youth football and church. Although Moore grew up around poverty and crime, he was surrounded by the love of his mother which fueled his desire to live a different lifestyle.
Moore attended Verbum Dei High School. After graduating from the college prep school, he attended Marist College in New York and began his journey to becoming a Rhode's scholar. During his first semester at Marist College, Moore academically excelled receiving a 3.8. Soon, he found his way over to the scholarship office and began exploring opportunities like the Fulbright Summer Institute Scholarship which allowed Moore to study abroad at the University of Bristol in England and complete a fellowship at Princeton University.
After completing his studies abroad, he came back to the United States where he attended Texas Christian University and began seeking similar scholarship opportunities. After a reminder text message from his mother to investigate the Rhodes scholarship, Moore applied and was successful.
The Rhode's scholarship is known as one of the most prestigious academic awards received by former presidents, prime ministers, and other world leaders and influential people. Each year, 32 students from the United States are selected as Rhode's scholars. According to the scholarship, the students are chosen based off their academic achievements, leadership, character and commitment to others and the common good.
Moore will be applying to doctoral programs in sociology during the fall of 2019, with hopes of entering a doctoral cohort in the fall of 2020. His life experiences in impoverished urban environments inform his research interests. He is primarily interested in researching how poverty informs experiences of race, gang violence and, other urban sociological issues. Moore is also interested in African diasporic studies, education, black masculinity, sport, rap music, Latin American studies, qualitative methods, and ethnography. His first book, A Dream Too Big: The Story of An Improbable Journey from Compton to Oxford, was written with hopes of reaching wider audiences outside of academia. This carefully crafted memoir encapsulates the core of urban sociology.
Interim Chancellor Peggy Valentine will preside over Fall Convocation. Valentine is in her first year as Interim Chancellor.
About Fayetteville State University
Fayetteville State University is a constituent institution of The University of North Carolina System and the second-oldest public institution of higher education in the state, having been founded in 1867. FSU is a historically black university offering degrees at the baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral levels. With more than 6,400 students, Fayetteville State University is among the most diverse institutions in the nation.