NEWS

WIRES

OTHER

CBS "The Early Show" Weatherman Dave Price to Serve as Master of Ceremonies

Sacred Heart University will host its 21st Annual Discovery Awards and Scholarship Dinner on Wednesday, April 21st, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Old Greenwich, Connecticut.

The gala honors notable individuals while raising funds for SHU's Discovery Scholar Grants program, which provides a tuition-free education to low-income students in Fairfield County. The Discovery Scholar Grants, established in 2008, allow Sacred Heart University to make financial assistance available to students who reside within Fairfield County and have an annual family income at or below $50,000. The plan provides each qualified student with 100 percent tuition coverage.

This year's honorees include CNBC's Larry Kudlow, the host of The Kudlow Report and a sought-after analyst of the current economic scene; Charles Gasparino, a senior correspondent for Fox Business Network and a best-selling business writer; and Monsignor Kevin Wallin, the pastor of Bridgeport's Cathedral Parish of St. Augustine and a long-serving member of the Sacred Heart University Board of Trustees.

SHU's Discovery Dinner invites the community to recognize and celebrate the gifts of caring and accomplished people-those who embody the tradition of the University in their lives. They represent a wide diversity of professions but hold in common a passion for excellence and a devotion to their fellow citizens. Each is truly an educator showing by example the inestimable value of learning, leadership and service.

Larry Kudlow, the respected host of CNBC's The Kudlow Report, also heads an independent economic research and consulting firm and is widely quoted in the financial press as a supply-side economist. Educated at the University of Rochester and Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, he has served two presidential administrations and was the chief economist for a number of Wall Street firms. A contributing editor to the National Review, he is the author of "American Abundance: The New Economic and Moral Prosperity."

Charles Gasparino is a senior correspondent for Fox Business Network and a best-selling author who was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his work with the Wall Street Journal. Previously, he was an on-air editor at CNBC. His latest book is "The Sellout: How Three Decades of Wall Street Greed and Government Mismanagement Destroyed the Global Financial System." It follows his critically reviewed books "Blood on the Street" and "King of the Club."

Monsignor Kevin Wallin is pastor of the Cathedral Parish of St. Augustine in Bridgeport. He is a longstanding member of the Sacred Heart University Board of Trustees and received its Curtis Medal in 2006. He will be honored in a year designated by Pope Benedict XVI as the International Year for Priests, which he declared last June on the Church's Feast of the Sacred Heart. Monsignor Wallin entered the seminary after a successful career as a college administrator in Ohio and New York and served as priest-secretary to both Bishop Walter W. Curtis and Bishop Edward M. Egan. A frequent lecturer on the liturgy, he is also a gifted performer. Since 1996, he has served as the Chaplain of the Order of Malta, Connecticut and is a Conventual Chaplain of the Order.

For the fifth year in a row, Dave Price, weather anchor for CBS News' The Early Show, will be the master of ceremonies for the evening. Event cochairs are Sacred Heart University Trustees Mark E. Freitas, Nancy Lambert, Linda McMahon, and Bill Mitchell.

The gala event begins with a reception at 6:00 p.m. followed by the dinner program at 7:00 p.m.

Over the past two decades, the Discovery Dinner has realized millions of dollars for student financial aid.

Sponsorship opportunities are available. Individual tickets are $500. All proceeds will benefit Sacred Heart University's Discovery Scholar Grants for eligible Fairfield County students.

For more information and reservations, visit www.sacredheart.edu/discoverydinner.cfm or call 203-396-8086.

About Sacred Heart University

Sacred Heart University, the second-largest Catholic university in New England, offers more than 40 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs on its main campus in Fairfield, Connecticut, and satellites in Connecticut, Luxembourg and Ireland. Approximately 6,000 students attend the University's four colleges: Arts & Sciences; Education & Health Professions; University College; and the AACSB-accredited John F. (Jack) Welch College of Business. The Princeton Review includes SHU in its "Best 371 Colleges: 2010" and "Best 301 Business Schools: 2010" and U.S. News & World Report ranks SHU among the best master's universities in the North in its annual "America's Best Colleges" publication. As one of just 23 institutions nationally, SHU is a member of the Association of American Colleges & Universities' (AAC&U) Core Commitments Leadership Consortium, in recognition of its core, "The Human Journey." SHU fields 31 division I athletic teams, and has an award-winning program of community service. www.sacredheart.edu