President Clinton Delivering a Speech to Students at Georgetown University, Washington D.C. (1995)
http://thefilmarchive.org/
July 6,
1995
Georgetown University is a private research university in
Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest
Jesuit and
Catholic university in the
United States.
Georgetown's main campus, located in
Washington's Georgetown neighborhood, is noted for
Healy Hall, a
National Historic Landmark in the
Romanesque revival style. Georgetown operates a law center on
Capitol Hill and auxiliary campuses in
Italy,
Turkey, and
Qatar.
Georgetown's founding by
John Carroll,
America's first
Catholic bishop, realized efforts to establish a
Roman Catholic college in the province of
Maryland that were repeatedly thwarted by religious persecution. The university expanded after the
American Civil War under the leadership of
Patrick Francis Healy, who came to be known as Georgetown's "second founder" despite having been born a slave.
Jesuits have participated in
the university's administration since 1805, a heritage Georgetown celebrates, but the university has always been governed independently of the
Society of Jesus and of church authorities.
The university has around 7,
000 undergraduate and over 8,000 post-graduate students from a wide variety of religious, ethnic, and geographic backgrounds, including 130 foreign countries. The university's most notable alumni are prominent in public life in the United States and abroad. Among them are former
U.S. President Bill Clinton,
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, dozens of governors and members of
Congress, and the heads of state or government of more than a dozen countries.
Campus organizations include the country's oldest student theater group and largest student-run business. Georgetown's athletic teams, called the
Hoyas, include a men's basketball team that has won a record-tying seven
Big East championships, appeared in five
Final Fours, and won a national championship in
1984.
Georgetown graduates have found success in a wide variety of fields, and have served at the heads of diverse institutions both in the public and private sector. Immediately after graduation, around 54--61% of undergraduates enter the workforce, while others go on to additional education. Georgetown graduates have been recipients of 23
Rhodes Scholarships, 18
Marshall Scholarships, and 24
Truman Scholarships. Georgetown is also one of the top-ten yearly producers of
Peace Corps volunteers as of
2010, with 35 active and 866 total volunteers since
1961.
Georgetown alumni have a median starting salary of $55,000 with a median mid-career salary of $
110,000. Just over 3% of Georgetown's 97,384 living alumni were listed in
Marquis Who's Who, the
14th highest percentage and eighth highest raw number among
American universities as of
2000.
NNDB, the
Notable Names Database, lists 353 notable alumni as of
2011.
Twelve current or former heads of state are alumni. Former
President of the United States Bill Clinton is a
1968 graduate of the
School of Foreign Service, and others include
Laura Chinchilla, current
President of Costa Rica,
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former
President of the Philippines,
Saad Hariri, former
Prime Minister of Lebanon, and
Alfredo Cristiani former
President of El Salvador. Six alumni serve in the
United States Senate, and thirteen in the
House of Representatives.
Current congressional alumni include
Dick Durbin,
Senate majority whip, and
Steny Hoyer,
House minority whip. Governors include
Pat Quinn of
Illinois,
John Lynch of
New Hampshire, and
Luis Fortuño, of
Puerto Rico. On the U.S.
Supreme Court, alumni include current
Associate Justice Antonin Scalia and former
Chief Justice Edward Douglass White.
Crown Prince Felipe of Spain,
King Abdullah II of Jordan,
Prince Turki bin
Faisal Al
Saud of the
Saudi Royal Family, and the deposed
Greek Prince Philippos are among the royalty who attended the school.
Besides numerous members of the senior diplomatic corps, graduates have also headed military organizations on both the domestic and international level, such as former
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and former
National Security Advisor General James L. Jones. Notable alumni in business include
Patricia Russo, former Alcatel-Lucent
CEO,
William J.
Doyle of the
Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, and
Ted Leonsis, owner of the
Washington Capitals,
Wizards, and
Mystics franchises and former
America Online executive. Leonsis is among four other undergraduate alumni who own professional sports teams, making Georgetown the most popular undergraduate university for major
North American sports franchise owners.
Actor Bradley Cooper,
People Magazine's
Sexiest Man Alive 2011, is also a Georgetown graduate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgetown_University