Fordham Senior to Receive Ethics Award at White House

Joseph Vignone, a Fordham College at Lincoln Center senior, is going to the White House to meet President Barack Obama.

The Fordham theology and history double major won the nationally renowned 2010 Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics last summer. He is slated to receive the award at an upcoming ceremony, date pending, with the President and the handful of other student runners-up and honorable mentions.

Also present at the awards ceremony will be 82-year-old Elie Wiesel, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor, whose Foundation for Humanity created the prize in 1989.

The prize is given to a college junior or senior annually for an essay that articulates an ethical issue, often of a religious or political nature. Vignone, who is also earning a minor in Middle Eastern Studies, won for his essay examining the choices of good vs. evil, as illustrated through the story of Iblis, an angelic figure in Islamic theology.

The Staten Island native was mentored by his advisor Aristotle Papanikolaou, Ph.D., associate professor of theology and associate chair for undergraduate studies and co-founding director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Program, and by Kathryn Kueny, Ph.D., clinical associate professor of theology.

While Vignone is in Washington, he will also meet fellow Fordhamite John O. Brennan (FCRH ‘77), chief counterterrorism advisor to President Obama.

Brennan, who spent 25 years in the CIA before receiving his White House appointment, meets with the President for a daily intelligence briefing.

—Janet Sassi