{"id":2201,"date":"2015-02-02T09:55:25","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T16:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/?p=2201"},"modified":"2015-04-02T10:15:49","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T16:15:49","slug":"reading-rainbow-and-star-trek-actor-to-headline-uccs-speaker-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/?p=2201","title":{"rendered":"Reading Rainbow and Star Trek actor to headline UCCS speaker series"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"LeVar<\/a>
LeVar Burton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

UPDATE: The date for LeVar Burton’s speech is now April 27. Please see http:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/?p=2284<\/strong><\/p>\n

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Former Star Trek actor and Emmy Award winning host of \u201cReading Rainbow,\u201d LeVar Burton, will speak at 7 p.m. April 14 at the Gallogly Events Center on the campus of the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.<\/p>\n

During his presentation, Burton will discuss literacy in America and what colleges, universities and their students can do to truly improve literacy rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing LeVar Burton to UCCS is beyond exciting,\u201d Stephen Cucchiara, assistant director, Student Activities, said. \u201cLiteracy is a topic that affects all individuals. Not to mention, LeVar enhanced many of our childhoods with motivation, inspiration, and desire to read.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets for the event will go on sale Feb. 10. They are $5 for students, faculty, staff and active duty military members at the University Center Information Desk. For all others, tickets are $15 and available through\u00a0www.ticketswest.com<\/a>. Ticket sales will be limited to two tickets per person.<\/p>\n

The event is the fifth part of the UCCS Significant Speakers Series offered by the Office of Student Activities and Residence Life and Housing. Last year, former Facebook executive and author Randi Zuckerberg filled the Gallogly Events Center. Scientists Neal deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye were the featured speakers in 2013 and 2012 respectively.<\/p>\n

Burton, 58, became the host of PBS’s \u201cReading Rainbow,\u201d\u00a0a show aimed at teaching young children to read. During its run from 1983 \u2013 2009, \u201cReading Rainbow\u201d won five Emmy Awards.<\/p>\n

From 1987 \u00ad\u2013 1994, Burton became a household name while playing blind chief engineer Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge on \u201cStar Trek: The Next Generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following\u00a0the cancelation of \u201cThe Next Generation\u201d in 1994, Burton directed several film and TV projects, including the 1998 TV movie\u00a0\u201cThe Tiger Woods Story,\u201d the series\u00a0\u201cSoul Food,\u201d\u00a0the dramedy\u00a0\u201cReach for Me\u201d\u00a0and the\u00a0Star Trek\u00a0spin-offs\u00a0\u201cStar Trek: Deep Space Nine,\u201d\u00a0\u201cStar Trek: Voyager\u201d and\u00a0\u201cStar Trek: Enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2011, Burton announced his latest endeavor, RRKidz, a reading and exploration platform aimed at motivating kids to “experience literature via the digital devices they love,” offering hundreds of books through a subscription service. The following year saw the launch of a free Reading Rainbow app, designed specifically for the iPad and for children ages 3-9.<\/p>\n

“Reading will never go out of style, but the tools used for learning are changing,” Burton said in a statement released at the time. “I am excited to bring Reading Rainbow back so that parents who watched the show can now share that same feel\u00adgood experience with their own children, but on platform that resonates with today’s digital kids.”<\/p>\n

In 2013, RRKidz announced that 10 million books and video field trips had been utilized through the app.<\/p>\n

For more information about RRKidz, visit www.readingrainbow.com.<\/a><\/p>\n

The University of Colorado Colorado Springs, located on Austin Bluffs Parkway in Colorado Springs, is one of the fastest growing universities in the nation. The University offers 37 bachelor\u2019s degrees, 19 master\u2019s and five doctoral degrees. UCCS enrolls about 11,000 students on campus annually and another 2,000 in online programs. For more information, visit www.uccs.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: The date for LeVar Burton’s speech is now April 27. Please see http:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/?p=2284 COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Former Star Trek actor and Emmy Award winning host of \u201cReading Rainbow,\u201d LeVar Burton, will speak at (Full Press Release)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pressreleases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2201"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2290,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2201\/revisions\/2290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}