Jazz Greats Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock to Perform at Benefit for Soka University

Aliso Viejo, Calif., Sept. 7, 2006 - Soka University of America (SUA) announces its second annual Peace Gala, Celebrating a Vision of Peace, featuring Grammy-award-winning jazz saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter, and fellow Grammy-winner and icon of modern music, Herbie Hancock. The event will be held at Soka University on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2006 at 6 p.m. Patrick Duffy, best known for his role as Bobby Ewing on TV's Dallas, is slated as the Master of Ceremonies for the evening.

Tax-deductible tickets to this elegant evening of dinner and incredible music are $250, with proceeds providing scholarships for Soka University students who come from around the world to experience Soka's unique educational experience founded upon the principles of peace, human rights and the sanctity of life. SUA founder Daisaku Ikeda said, “The ultimate goal of a Soka education is to foster people of character who continuously strive for the greatest good - that of peace."

Soka University is open to top students of all races, nationalities and religions. About half of SUA's students have come from the United States and half from more than 30 other countries. Soka University, Aliso Viejo opened in 2001 and was accredited in 2005 by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).

Soka University is founded on the belief that student-centered education is the best way to promote peace and human rights by fostering a global humanistic perspective on the world in which we live. SUA offers a 9:1 student/faculty ratio, comparative teaching of international perspectives, a Core Curriculum and Learning Clusters, with an emphasis on language, art and culture. All students participate in a semester of Study Abroad during their junior year to create relevancy between classroom study and the world around them.

Soka University has graduated two classes, with students admitted to such prestigious graduate schools as Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Stanford, Columbia, NYU, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine and USC.

Gala Chairwoman Dr. Jean Cross, added, “Soka is a great asset to the community, a model of excellence in education and citizenship."

Information on attending the gala is available at www.soka.edu/ gala, [email protected] or 949.480.4072.

Soka University of America is a selective, independent, non-profit, co-educational, comprehensive institution of higher learning founded upon the Buddhist principles of peace, human rights and the sanctity of life.