Maya Soetoro-Ng, President Obama’s sister, will speak at Sacramento State March 17.

The speech, titled “Leadership and Service in the 21st Century,” is sponsored by the Cooper-Woodson College Enhancement Program, as well as the department of Pan-African studies, Asian-American studies, ethnic studies, the Black Staff and Faculty Association and UNIQUE. It will begin at 2 p.m. in the University Union Ballroom.

Boatamo Mosupyoe, director of the Cooper-Woodson program, knows Soetoro-Ng through their work together on the international advisory board of Global Majority, an organization that mediates conflicts in volatile countries.

Otis Scott, former dean of the College of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies, founded the Cooper-Woodson program to promote leadership and service, Mosupyoe said. Obama frequently speaks on those themes, and Soetoro-Ng’s speech will contain similar material.

Mosupyoe will introduce Soetoro-Ng before the speech. Later, Mosupyoe will host Soetoro-Ng at a reception at Mosupyoe’s home, where Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and the consul general of South Africa will join them. Sac State President Alexander Gonzalez and other officials have been invited to the event, Mosupyoe said.

Zenia Diokno, programs adviser for UNIQUE, said that plans for the speech came together at the beginning of this week and credited Mosupyoe and the Cooper-Woodson program for organizing the event.

“They kind of spearheaded this program,” Diokno said.

Soetoro-Ng was born in 1970 in Jakarta, Indonesia to Ann Dunham, Obama’s mother, and Indonesian businessman Lolo Soetoro, Dunham’s second husband. She attended Punhaou School in Hawaii, and graduated from Barnard College in Manhattan. She also received a Master’s Degree in English from New York University and a Ph.D. in international comparative education from the University of Hawaii.

Soetoro-Ng teaches high school history at a private girls’ school in Hawaii. She also teaches night classes at the University of Hawaii. She spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Denver last year.

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Sam Pearson can be reached at [email protected].