By Melyssa Allen

Meredith College is launching a newlecture series sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Presidential Lecture Series at Meredith College will feature at least three major speakers each academic year. The series is supported by a gift from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.

This new lecture series is designed to foster students' abilities to develop the knowledge, skills, values and global awareness necessary to become tomorrow's leaders, and to lead responsible lives of citizenship, learning and service.

For 2005-06, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Presidential Lecture Series at Meredith College will follow a theme of "Our World, Our Responsibility: Contributing to Positive Change Around the Globe."

The "Our World, Our Responsibility" theme aims to provoke campus-wide discussion on issues of global importance, and encourage people to develop their own ways to address these issues in their communities.

Speakers for the series' inaugural year are

• Documentary Filmmaker Rory Kennedy at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, November 30;
• Nicolas de Torrenté, U.S. executive director of the international humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 16; and
• William McDonough, founding partner of an internationally recognized design firm practicing ecologically, socially and economically intelligent architecture, at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12.

Each lecture will be held in Jones Auditorium. Events in the series are free and open to the public