John Wood, founder and chief executive officer of a U.S. charity that builds schools and libraries in Asia, will give the annual Maytum Convocation Lecture at SUNY Fredonia on Tuesday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m. in King Concert Hall. Mr. Wood created the not-for-profit corporation, Room to Read, to boost basic literacy in children living in impoverished countries.
 
Room to Read recently targeted Sri Lanka for special help after the Dec. 26 tsunami devastated that country. In January and February of this year, SUNY Fredonia raised more than $8,400 for Sri Lanka which it sent to Room to Read as a Valentine’s Day gift. The campus campaign was entitled, "Hearts for Sri Lanka," and was led by Volunteer Services Coordinator Joyce Smith and Student Association President Patrick Fanelli.

Mr. Wood’s speech at Fredonia, entitled "A Vision for World Literacy," is part of the 2005 Convocation at SUNY Fredonia and is free and open to the public. The Maytum Convocation Lecture is sponsored by an endowment by the Maytum Family of Fredonia through the Fredonia College Foundation.
 
Mr. Wood has received international recognition for his efforts. He is the recipient of The Time Asian Heroes Award as one of "20 People under 40 who have done something brave, bold or remarkable," and was selected for the inaugural group of Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum.
 
A native of Connecticut with degrees from the University of Colorado and Northwestern University, Mr. Wood was the Microsoft director of business for the greater China region until he decided, at age 35, to leave his corporate position and form Room to Read. The goal of the organization is the promotion of literacy in impoverished areas of the world. Since 2000, Room to Read has sponsored the opening of 1,600 libraries throughout Asia. The long-term goal of the agency is to create a network of 20,000 new schools and libraries that will serve over 10 million children in some of the poorest sections of the globe.
 
"The figure of 850 million illiterate people in the world looks just like the Annapurna Range in Nepal – steep," Mr. Wood commented in a recent press statement. "We estimate that through our programs, we have been able to provide the opportunity of education to roughly 400,000 children. While this number is a large amount, our goal is to provide this opportunity for at least 10 million children by 2020 – a far cry from where we are today. Every morning I wake up and think to myself, ‘how many kids’ lives can we change today’"? Mr. Wood is a two-time winner of the Fast Company Magazine Social Capitalist Award, earned a $200,000 Skoll Foundation Award for Social Innovation and was given the Draper Richards Fellowship, the largest award of its kind for social entrepreneurs in the United States. Mr. Wood has also been featured in stories by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine and the Public Broadcasting Corporation.
 
SUNY Fredonia convocation activities are part of an annual tradition in which select faculty members and administrators choose a topic for the campus community to study. A variety of projects related to this subject are then scheduled across the academic calendar. For more information on Convocaton events this spring, visit the university online at www.fredonia.edu.