Issue 10, 2012 Winter - Valencia College

JOHN
PRENDERGAST
Human Rights Activist and Best-Selling Author
January 30, 2013 | 1 p.m.
East Campus Performing Arts Center
“Unlikely Brothers: An Inspirational Story of Mentorship”
At age 20, John Prendergast visited a homeless
shelter blocks from the White House in
Washington, D.C. While there, he met 7-yearold
Michael Mattocks, who was living out of
garbage bags and drifting from one homeless
shelter to another with his mother and siblings.
Prendergast became Michael’s Big Brother—and
took him fishing, on road trips, out to eat at
cheap restaurants and played basketball with
him. Although Prendergast later went to work
in Africa as a human-rights activist, he spent the
next 27 years as Michael’s Big Brother.
Together, the two of them have chronicled their
life’s journeys—both together and apart—in a
new book, Unlikely Brothers (Random House).
“Through my long relationship with Michael,
which endured my living and working in
African war zones while Michael was growing
up in a different kind of war zone only minutes
away from the White House, I learned anyone
can make a difference in another’s life if we take
a risk and make a commitment.”
– Prendergast
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This visit is part of the Humanities Speaker Series, funded by East Campus Student Development.