May 15, 2002– Saint Peter’s College Education Professor Receives
Ellis Island’s Highest Honor
Board of Trustees Member John Ferguson Also Honored
Jersey City, NJ – Saint Peter’s College Education Associate Professor James Jacobson (Secaucus, NJ) and Board of Trustees member John Ferguson (Park Ridge, NJ) were honored on May 11 with the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. Jacobson and Ferguson, along with 132 other outstanding Americans working in government, healthcare, industry, education, sports and entertainment, including such notables as Joe Garagiola, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and former FBI Director Louis Freeh, received their awards at a black tie dinner in Ellis Island’s Great Hall.
The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, sponsored by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations, is presented annually to Americans who have maintained strong ties to their ancestry and further the growth of ethnic America. Past honorees have included United States Presidents Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon. Rudy Guiliani, Jay Leno, Yogi Berra, Muhammad Ali, the late Cardinal O’Connor and Walter Cronkite also dot the group’s “Who’s Who” of past honorees.
“I was very honored to be in such distinguished company,” Jacobson, who is Finnish, said. “It was a very moving experience. The dinner was in the Great Hall where my grandfather went through in 1905 when he came from Finland, so to be there was awe-inspiring. And to be included with such a prestigious group was absolutely incredible. On the way to the dinner, I found myself talking to Steven Casteel of the Drug Enforcement Agency and Louis Freeh who is now a major executive with MBNA America. It was the start of a great night.”
Jacobson, who has taught at Saint Peter’s for the last 35 years and has more than 5000 of his students currently working in education, was honored largely for his volunteer work with the Armenian community in New York City. He has spent 27 years helping the administrators at Armenian Language Laboratory design programs to instill youngsters with Armenian culture through education.
“The teachers in the Armenian program are very dedicated individuals and it is a great experience for me to help them achieve their goal of maintaining their culture and language,” Jacobson said. “I got involved because the Rector of the program was a former student of mine 30 years ago. She invited me to give a one-hour lecture and now 27 years later, I’m still very much involved.”
Jacobson also serves on the Board of Directors for Jersey City’s Gateway Charter School and the Occupational Center of Hudson County. He also assists numerous school districts with teacher workshops.
Ferguson, a 1970 Saint Peter’s College graduate, is the President and Chief Executive Officer at Hackensack University Medical Center.
Saint Peter’s College is the Jesuit College of New Jersey. Founded in 1872, Saint Peter’s has an enrollment of more than 3,000 students in undergraduate and graduate programs. The main campus is located in Jersey City and a branch campus, specializing in adult education, is located in Englewood Cliffs. Saint Peter’s also offers classes in downtown Jersey City near the waterfront financial district.