The Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship will host a free lecture this week titled, “Getting Ahead with Almost Nothing: What Immigrant Communities Can Teach Us About Achieving the American Dream.”

Jeffrey Ashe, a scholar and international microfinance expert, will deliver the lecture at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 25, in Sussman Theater in the Olmsted Center. The talk is free and open to the public and is co-sponsored by The Solidarity Foundation, a nonprofit, which is based in Des Moines and operates savings groups in Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Des Moines. These savings-based microfinance tools, designed by Ashe in the early 2000s, provide vulnerable populations with safe and affordable ways to save and borrow money. For more information, visit the Drake Newsroom.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and VIP—a confidential, peer-run crisis hotline—is supporting survivors through multiple events to raise awareness of domestic violence this week. All event details can be found on the VIP Facebook page.

—Ashley Hawkins

Faculty and staff are invited to join Cowles Library and the Department for the Study of Culture and Society on Wednesday, Nov. 2, at 7 p.m. for a free and open discussion about Professor Michael Haedicke’s recent publication, “Organizing Organic: Conflict and Compromise in an Emerging Market.” Join us in the Cowles Library Reading Room, with a reception to follow in the atrium.

—Claudia Frazer, Cowles Library