Patrice Gaines has been many places, and on Monday she’ll add Western to her list. Gaines, an award-winning journalist, will be the featured speaker at the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Convocation at 11 a.m. Monday at Van Meter Hall. The event is free. Gaines worked as a reporter at the Washington Post for 16 years and has written two books, including an autobiography of her life, titled Laughing in the Dark: From Colored Girl to Woman of Color – A Journey From Prison to Power.

Thirty-six students will go to Chicago on Saturday to participate in a model U.N conference with a Political Science 300 class. In Chicago, the students will represent four countries: Slovakia, Congo, Somalia and the Philippines in the mock U.N. meeting. According to Roger Murphy, the faculty adviser for the trip, the students have had to research their particular country.