Virtual MLK Day program to feature Sunny Hostin of “The View” and 6ABC’s Rick Williams

Sunny Hostin, an Emmy Award-winning journalist, author, and co-host, ABC’s “The View,” will deliver the keynote address Jan. 18 during Rowan University’s 35^th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Scholarship Celebration and Day of Service.

The program, which raises scholarship funding for Rowan University students, will also feature WPVI-TV 6ABC news anchor Rick Williams as master of ceremonies.

Though fully virtual, many beloved high points from programs past will include a singing of “We Shall Overcome” by Dr. Lourin Plant, an assistant professor of voice in the College of Performing Arts, and student performances. Participants will have an opportunity to engage in volunteer activities organized by Rowan’s Office of Volunteerism, Community Engagement & Commuter Services and through the Perfecting Church’s Loving our Cities initiative located in Sewell.

This year about a dozen Rowan students will receive $1,000 in scholarship funding from past programs. All proceeds raised Jan. 18 will support future recipients of William H. Myers Scholarships through the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Rowan University Foundation.

The program begins at 9 a.m. via Webex and will be followed by a slate of online Day of Service activities beginning at 10:30, also via Webex.

A winner of three Emmy awards, Hostin is a graduate of Notre Dame Law School and is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney who received the Special Achievement Award by Attorney General Janet Reno for her prosecution of child sexual predators. Originally from New York’s South Bronx neighborhood, Hostin, born to an African American father and Puerto Rican mother, felt from a young age the pressures of poverty, police harassment and systemic racism. She is the author of a three-book fiction series, with the first, Summer on the Bluffs, scheduled for release next summer.

A longtime anchor and reporter, Williams leads the number-one rated Action News at Noon and Action News at 5 p.m. broadcasts and is a longtime contributor to Action News' weekly "Crimefighters" series.

The cost of attendance to this year’s program is $25 but it is free to students.

Register today!