With inspiration and an education from epic tomes including Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and George Eliot's Middlemarch, Julie Orringer produced the highly acclaimed novel The Invisible Bridge, which she shared with a crowd of literature lovers at St. Francis College for the latest event in the Walt Whitman Writers Series on November 3.

After a rally and visit from a World Champion Water Polo coach, the St. Francis College Men's Water Polo team is off to Berkeley, California for its semi-final match Saturday, December 4 at 4:00pm (EST) against the defending champion, the University of Southern California. The game is viewable on ncaa.com.

For the vast majority of NCAA Division I student athletes, college will be the last time they play competitively in their chosen sport, but it doesn't mean they have to leave athletics behind. For the second year in a row Cheretta Robson, Assistant Director of Career Development at the St. Francis College Career Center will be a facilitator at the NCAA Career in Sports Forum in Indianapolis.

In a spirited debate at St. Francis College November 15, a bipartisan panel of experts discussed the real world affect that American Elites play in a democracy that is based on the ideal of one person, one vote. The event, co-hosted by St. Francis College and the Manhattan Institute, is the latest in a series about contemporary politics.

When NY1 Anchor and Reporter Cheryl Wills stumbled upon the name Sandy Wills during a lazy Internet search, she discovered that her great-great-great-grandfather was a runaway slave who fought for the North in the Civil War and her reporter's instincts immediately kicked in. Less than a year later, Wills has written and published Die Free: A Heroic Family History which she presented through words, music and pictures to a rapt audience on Tuesday, November 9 at St. Francis College.

St. Francis College Professor of Fine Arts Suzanne Forsberg was honored by her alma mater, the University of Utah with the 2010 Merit of Honor for Distinguished Service, November 4 at a banquet hosted by the University of Utah Alumni Association and the Emeritus Alumni Board.

The St. Francis College Muslim Student Association hosted the discussion, Islam: Life Against Terror with Imam Mazen Mokhtar a member of the New Jersey Chapter of the Muslim American Society (MAS) on November 4 in Founders Hall.

St. Francis College, founded in 1859 by the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn, is located in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y. Since its founding, the College has pursued its Franciscan mission to provide an affordable, high-quality education to students from New York City’s five boroughs and beyond. ### St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street, Brooklyn Heights, NY 11201 www.sfc.edu

An equal mix of St. Francis College students, Manhattan Institute supporters and the larger community were on hand to hear how the Tea Party movement, which has gotten enormous attention in other parts of the country, is affecting New York politics. The debate, Are the Tea Parties Good for New York?, held October 28 at St. Francis, was co-sponsored by St. Francis College and the Manhattan Institute and featured Steve Malanga of the Manhattan Institute and Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of the Slate Group

United States District Judge Paul G. Gardephe gave a crowded room of students and members of the St. Francis College community a comprehensive talk on the importance of the American judicial system and the way the court system works on Monday, October 18 at the College.