He and his team are taking the next few weeks to gather interest from students and backers alike, before fully opening the platform in September to students and recent alumni at its first five schools, Arizona State University, Dartmouth College, Rhode Island School of Design, University of Michigan and University of Washington.

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Lynch, who knew him in college and is now chairman of the Rhode Island Democratic Party.

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This is my ninth visit to Israel in the past 25 years, and I'm always reminded of college and my first reporting job in Rhode Island: Everything is so close.

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Itching to get away from home and the distractions of political life in the capital, he transferred after a year to Providence College in Rhode Island.

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In the course of a long academic career, Achebe took up university posts in Nigeria and overseas, including teaching at Brown University in Rhode Island, where he was professor of Africana Studies, and Bard College in New York.

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