San Jose, CA -- (SPW) --

Joseph Fortuno, a Freshman currently studying Digital Media Management at Cogswell College, an historic, 600-student educational institution offering a unique curriculum fusing Digital Art, Engineering and Entrepreneurship, will be among the featured guests on a national PBS TV special entitled "American Graduate Day 2015."  The all-day broadcast special hosted by Soledad O'Brien will premiere Saturday, October 3, and will be broadcast from 11AM – 6PM ET on PBS stations nationwide. Fortuno, age 19, will be interviewed on the "American Graduate Day" TV special by ABC TV "Nightline" Anchor and Junior Achievement Alumni Juju Chang.

Dr. Deborah Snyder, Cogswell College President and Chief Academic Officer, said, "We are very proud to have among our Freshman class this year Joseph Fortuno, a truly outstanding student and remarkable human being. He has clearly made a mark on the world even before joining us here  – after all, how often do teenage entrepreneurs get interviewed on national television? We can't wait to see what additional talents and creative insights Joseph will bring to his education at Cogswell as his Freshman year progresses."

Adds Fortuno, a native of Hercules, CA, "I am very excited to represent Junior Achievement on this PBS TV special. I hope that my appearance on this television program will inspire viewers the way that Junior Achievement inspired me to create a path toward a successful future. During my TV interview, I will also discuss the start of my just-begun education at Cogswell College. I quickly fell in love with the atmosphere at Cogswell, where I am currently studying Digital Media Management – a very business-oriented major with a focus on 21st Century technology. After I graduate from Cogswell in 2019, my plan is to pursue my 'dream job' – working in marketing for Twitter or Facebook. I believe that my education at Cogswell will position me with the perfect avenue by which to pursue my future career goals."

About THE "AMERICAN GRADUATE DAY 2015" PBS TV SPECIAL
Broadcast and streamed live from the Tisch/WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City, the annual multiplatform event is part of the public media initiative "American Graduate: Let's Make It Happen," helping communities bolster graduation rates through the power and reach of local public media stations. Featuring seven hours of national and local programming, live interviews and performances, "American Graduate Day 2015" will celebrate the exceptional work of individuals and groups across the country who are American Graduate Champions: those helping local youth stay on track to college and career successes. 

The program will spotlight individuals and influential figures in local communities around the country who are successfully keeping students on the path to graduation. As part of the TV special, Junior Achievement USA (JA) will spotlight JA Alumnus and current Cogswell College student Joseph Fortuno, a teenage entrepreneur who was the CEO of Herban Movement, a start-up created by Junior Achievement of Northern California students who attended Hercules High School in Hercules, Calif.

Joseph Fortuno's Herban Movement created a cookbook-encyclopedia hybrid and a multipurpose bag that replaces outdated plastic grocery bags. Herban Movement was recognized with a national award for social innovation at Junior Achievement's recent National Student Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. See: http://herbanmovement.squarespace.com/

About Junior Achievement USA^® (JA)
Junior Achievement is the world's largest organization dedicated to giving young people the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success, plan for their future, and make smart academic and economic choices. JA programs are delivered by corporate and community volunteers, and provide relevant, hands-on experiences that give students from kindergarten through high school knowledge and skills in financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship. Today, JA reaches 4.6 million students per year in 113 markets across the United States, with an additional 5.6 million students served by operations in 121 other countries worldwide. Please visit www.ja.org

About COGSWELL COLLEGE
Designed as a "fiercely collaborative, living laboratory," Cogswell College is located in the heart of the legendary Silicon Valley in Sunnyvale, California. The school is a WASC accredited, four-year institution of higher education with a specialized curriculum that fuses digital arts, audio technology, game design, engineering and entrepreneurship. In 2015, Cogswell was cited by Animation Career Review as "One of the Top 50 Private Game Design Schools and Colleges in the U.S."

Numerous alumni of Cogswell College have secured prominent positions within the entertainment, videogame, technology, computer, animation, and motion graphics industries throughout California and beyond. Several of these alumni have established careers with such high profile companies as Activision, DreamWorks Animation, Disney, Electronic Arts, Pixar, and Microsoft Game Studio. Many other alumni have launched their own creative ventures.

Recent Cogswell alumni were members of the Academy Award-winning production teams which worked on the blockbuster films "Frozen" and "Life of Pi." Some of the other well-known consumer projects to which Cogswell alumni have contributed include the feature films "Big Hero 6" and "The Avengers," and the popular videogames "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare," "Halo 4" and "Battlefield Hardline."    

Cogswell College is located at 191 Baypointe Parkway, San Jose, California, 95134. For more information, please call 1-800-264-7955 or visit  http://www.cogswell.edu

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