Andover residents are invited to hear best-selling author Wes Moore, who will talk about how a subtle difference between himself and another Wes Moore led one to work in the White House and the other to prison for life. The difference? Moore believes it’s the school he attended after a troubled youth.
The youth advocate will speak on Friday, April 5 at 8 p.m. in the Cochran Chapel, located on Chapel Avenue on the campus of Phillips Academy. The event, which is free and open to the public, kicks off a weekend-long 45th anniversary celebration of the Phillips Academy Af-Lat-Am Society.
“An Army officer, Rhodes Scholar, White House fellow, best-selling author, youth advocate, and business leader, Wes Moore is an American success story and a born leader—but he wasn’t always on the path to achievement. Raised in a single-parent household in Baltimore, Moore was drawn toward trouble as a child, enough so that his mother eventually enrolled him in a Pennsylvania military school. This single, determined choice effectively changed the course of her son’s life,” according to a release from Phillips Academy. “It is no surprise, then, that Moore addresses this very issue of choice in his compelling keynote talks as well as in his New York Times bestseller, ‘The Other Wes Moore: One name, two fates.’
“In his book, he tells the fascinating story of another Wes Moore—a man who shared his name and much of his personal history. About the same age and raised in the same neighborhood by a single mother, this ‘other Wes Moore’ arrived at a starkly different fate: he now serves a life sentence without parole on murder charges.”
Compelled by their similar upbringings, Moore wrote his book to discover how small choices make big differences in life. A young adult version of the book, titled “Discovering Wes Moore,” was published in 2012, and movie rights to “The Other Wes Moore” have been optioned by Oprah Winfrey and HBO Films.
Moore graduated Phi Theta Kappa as a commissioned officer from Valley Forge Military College in 1998 and Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hopkins University in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in international relations. At Johns Hopkins he was honored by the Maryland College Football Hall of Fame. He completed an MLitt in international relations from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 2004.
Moore was a paratrooper and Captain in the United States Army, serving a combat tour of duty in Afghanistan with the elite 1st Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division in 2005-2006. He spearheaded the American strategic support plan for the Afghan Reconciliation Program that unites former insurgents with the new Afghan government.
A White House Fellow from 2006-2007, Moore served as a special assistant to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Following his time at the White House, he became an investment professional in New York at Citigroup, focusing on global technology, where he left as a vice president. In 2009 he was selected as an Asia Society Fellow and was named one of Crain’s New York Business’ 40 Under 40 Rising Stars.
Moore’s presentation is sponsored by Phillips Academy’s Office of Community and Multicultural Development and the Office of Alumni Affairs with financial support from the Hosch Fund.
