ITHACA, N.Y. -- Co-founders of El Puente, the Brooklyn-based school and community youth development organization that nurtures holistic leadership for peace and social justice, will speak on "Education for Social Justice: El Puente," Wednesday, Sept. 25, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Goldwin Smith Hall Auditorium D on the Cornell University campus.

The program, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Iscol Family Program for Leadership Development in Public Service, an interdisciplinary program in Cornell's College of Human Ecology. The program is designed to inspire undergraduate students to become leaders in public service who will address the intractable problems that face society, such as hunger, poverty, ignorance, homelessness and violence.

The speakers this year are Luis Garden Acosta, president and chief executive officer of El Puente ("The Bridge"), and Frances Lucerna, executive and artistic director of El Puente. El Puente was founded to help counter youth violence in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn and is now Brooklyn's most comprehensive Latino multi-arts and cultural center.

Acosta has been at the helm of El Puente since 1982; he has served as a community development organizer for New York City's Office of the Mayor and is an activist for national welfare rights. After dancing professionally for 13 years, Lucerna founded, in 1980, the Williamsburg Arts and Cultural Council for Youth, a community performing and visual arts program for adolescents, and she co-founded El Puente in 1982. She also is a founding principal of El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, a New Visions/New York City Board of Education high school, one of the only schools in the country dedicated to human rights.

The Iscol Family Program for Leadership Development in Public Service is endowed by Iscol family. Ken Iscol, Cornell '60, is a leader in the development of the Personal Enterprise and Small Business Management Program and a founding supporter of the Center for the Environment at Cornell. Jill Iscol manages the family's foundation and is an educator and sociologist.