Arkansas Democrat-Gazette staff writer Amy Schlesing will kick off the 2005-06 Lecture~Concert Series at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro with her lecture, “A Year With America’s Infantry: An Inside Look Into Life at War,” on Tuesday, Sept. 13.

Schlesing has returned stateside after traveling nearly a year with the Arkansas National Guard’s 39th Infantry Brigade in Iraq. The brigade was part of the largest rotation of American troops since World War II. The 4,200 soldiers with the brigade rotated into Baghdad with the 1st Cavalry Division to replace the 1st Armored Division. She served with the troops for the entire year in Iraq, becoming the longest embedded reporter to serve since Ernie Pyle in World War II. 

She has recently finished a book about her experiences and the soldiers who affectionately called her “The Amy of One.”  She was recently awarded the first Robert S. McCord Award for Excellence in Journalism by the Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi, and was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists.

Schlesing is a native of the Missouri Ozarks and is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Before moving to Little Rock in 2002, she was a reporter and editor in northwest Arkansas. Shortly after moving to central Arkansas, the Arkansas Democrat assigned Schlesing to cover the military. And, within one year’s time, she was headed to Iraq with the Guard’s Infantry Brigade.

“I patrolled with the soldiers, walked with them on foot patrols, rode with them during mounted patrols and took cover when firefights broke out around us,” Schlesing said recently.

Schlesing will speak and present a slide show at 7 p.m. in the Student Union Auditorium. This event is a joint presentation with the ASU College of Communications.

The Lecture~Concert Series presents free and diverse programs to enrich the cultural life of the campus, community and region.

For more information, please contact Dr. Gil Fowler, associate dean of The Honors College, at 870-972-2308 or via email at gfowler@astate.edu.