‘Making the Foreign Less Foreign’ is topic of PBS reporter’s talk

Fred de Sam Lazaro is returning to Saint John’s University — but only for one day.

de Sam Lazaro, executive director of the Under-Told Stories Project at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, will speak on “The Under-Told Stories Project: Making the Foreign Less Foreign” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 27, at room 102, Saint John’s Art Center.

There will also be a social for de Sam Lazaro from 4:30-6:30 p.m. at the SJU Pottery Studio, with hot appetizers to be served.

Both events are free and open to the public.

de Sam Lazaro developed a friendship with the late Br. Dietrich Reinhart, OSB, president of Saint John’s from 1991-2008, and founded his Under-Told Stories Project in 2006 at SJU.

He continued working at SJU until 2010, when he moved on to Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. From there, de Sam Lazaro joined the staff at St. Thomas on Jan. 1, 2016.

The Under-told Stories Project combines teaching and international journalism. He has reported from 68 countries chasing stories that are under-reported in the mainstream U.S. media.

de Sam Lazaro has focused on human suffering and poverty, and takes a solution-orientated narrative, driven by strong characters, notably from the field of social entrepreneurship and innovation.  

“Fred de Sam Lazaro has truly made the global local for regional and national audiences of public television and radio telling the stories of the otherwise forgotten people and communities in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America,” said Nick Hayes, University Chair of Critical Thinking at SJU and a friend and frequent collaborator with de Sam Lazaro from 1990-2006.

de Sam Lazaro has served as a correspondent for the “PBS NewsHour” since 1985, and was a regular contributor and substitute anchor for PBS’ “Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.” He has also directed films from his native India and the Democratic republic of Congo for the acclaimed documentary series, “Wide Angle.”

A graduate of the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota, de Sam Lazaro has served on the boards of the Asian American Journalists Association, the Children’s Law Center of Minnesota and at the College of Saint Scholastica. He currently serves on the board of MinnPost, an online nonprofit Minnesota based news service.