New York Times best-selling author Wes Moore told a campus audience Monday that action is the prerequisite to any meaningful change.
In an interview with Campus Current before he delivered a speech, Moore, author of “The Other Wes Moore,” said the civil rights leader “demanded, pushed for and got done.”
Moore, CEO of BridgeEdU, an education technology startup, delivered the keynote address at the 36th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfast at AACC, hosted by Anne Arundel County’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Committee.
Moore said the reason for remembering King on this day is because he stood out among great leaders.
“We have had many great leaders, but they don’t get days named after them,”said Moore, a decorated combat veteran.
Moore said that giving the keynote address for the breakfast meant “a great deal” to him.
“[Maryland] is home base for me,” Moore, a Baltimore native, said. “And not just doing it here in Maryland, which is the place that I still live, it’s also doing it at a community college. As a community college grad I understand how important [they] are and being able to celebrate that on a day like MLK Day means a great deal to me.”
Moore graduated from Valley Forge Military Academy & College, a junior college in Pennsylvania, before attending Johns Hopkins University and the University of Oxford.
During the interview, Moore, who also wrote the best-seller “The Work,” offered advice to AACC students.
“The key thing is to focus on skill set and then you want to focus on pas- sion points,” said Moore, 38. “Work on things you actually care about, because if you actually care you’ll have a much better chance of getting things done.”
In the interview, Moore, an entrepreneur, said it’s important that “we keep the legacy in mind. The legacy has to be about the act.”
The AACC annual MLK breakfast honors civic leaders and educators who best radiate the spirit of the late King, and echo his mission. The theme of this year’s breakfast was “Making the Dream a Reality.”