This is the time of year when the University acknowledges excellence of all kinds. Some of the award ceremonies - like the Class of 2000 College Honors Celebration on Saturday, May 27, at 1:30 p.m. on Manning Walkway - are for seniors who have received specific departmental academic awards.Other award ceremonies are held to honor students for their exceptional service to the Brown community. Read a bit about these graduating seniors, and get a chance to meet them by inviting yourself to attend the award presentations.
Ten seniors who have made significant contributions to the quality of student life through leadership and service in the Brown community have been named recipients of the 2000 Joslin Awards for Campus Leadership and Involvement.
Mushtaq Gunja of Diamond Bar, Calif., has found several avenues for service and leadership.
During his senior year, Gunja was a Meiklejohn academic advisor. Meiklejohns are chosen for their understanding of the Brown curriculum and their ability to relate to beginning students. They work with a faculty partner to advise and guide a group of students through their first year at Brown. In his sophomore year, Gunja was a minority peer counselor, living with 50 first-year students and producing a series of dormitory discussions on race, class, sexism and homophobia.
Gunja chaired the Undergraduate Finance Board during his senior year. This 10-member board is responsible for allocating a budget of $750,000, which comes from the student activity fee, to more than 100 campus organizations. The previous year, he was the student activities coordinator for the Undergraduate Council of Students. As coordinator, his accomplishments included implementation of the Campus Leadership Alliance, which united student leaders across campus to discuss common concerns.
Throughout his years at Brown, Gunja was a member of the Brown Mock Trial team, advancing to the national tournament twice. He served as its co-president during his junior and senior years, and received its Best Attorney Award in 1997 and 1998.
Gunja is graduating from Brown with a bachelor's degree in political science and diplomatic history.
Education and mentoring have been at the heart of Liliana Polo's four years at Brown.
Polo, of Brooklyn, N.Y., has volunteered as a tutor in a number of Providence schools. Also, through Brown's Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, she helped coordinate the Research Apprenticeship Program - a six-week course housed at the center that links area high school students with Brown undergraduate mentors to learn the process of social science research.
Polo has been a member of the Latin American Student Organization (LASO) since her freshman year. During her senior year, she was LASO's co-chair. In addition, she has been a member of Mezcla, a Latino performance group; on the editorial staff of SOMOS, the Latino literary magazine; and a member of the Sigma Lambda Upsilon/Señoritas Latinas Unidas sorority, serving as her chapter's vice president. Her interest in Latino issues prompted her to help organize the first Latino Preview Program for Latino high school students interested in attending Brown. In April, Polo represented the University at a Latino studies conference at Cornell.
Polo will be attending graduate school to pursue a master's degree in education.
Lisa A. Powell of Atlanta has demonstrated her leadership qualities in a variety of ways, most notably through Brown Outdoor Leadership Training (BOLT). Powell was a participant in BOLT in 1997, then became a leader and, during her senior year, a student manager. Through BOLT, Powell led fellow students on five-day backpacking trips, taught workshops in leadership and outdoor skills, organized service projects, planned social events, recruited participants and leaders, contacted alumni and proposed ways to expand the program.
Powell "has been a passionate advocate for the program over the years, dedicating long hours to training and preparation of participants and leaders as well as time spent in outdoor training retreats," noted one faculty nominator. "Lisa does these things because of her deep love for the natural world, for the community of individuals committed to ideas, and for the pleasure that results from such a conjunction. ...She is a leader in the very best sense of the word, a quiet compelling presence who seemingly without effort alters the world around her."
In addition, Powell was a mentor and tutor in 1998 to a high school student through Brown's Outdoor Leadership and Experiential Education Project, which also uses backpacking and outdoor workshops to develop the leadership skills of mentor as well as mentee.
Powell will receive her bachelor's degree in comparative literature when she graduates Monday.
Ateptaya Tanya Rakpraja of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., has dedicated herself to building a stronger campus community.
As a freshman, Rakpraja was a founding member of the Thai Student Association. The following year, she was a minority peer counselor. She also is a member of Brown Asian Sisters United.
Rakpraja was a driving force behind the 1999 East Coast Asian Student Union, planning and implementing a Brown conference aimed at defining a pan-ethnic Asian Pacific American identity and community. The conference featured workshops, keynote speakers and performing groups. She supervised a steering committee that budgeted and raised $35,000 to finance the event, which drew some 500 students from more than 60 schools across the country.
Rakpraja also coordinated the Community Building Workshop, designed to create an inclusive, open dialogue among different sectors of campus. The effort required months of planning, fundraising and recruiting. Rakpraja's "work and attention to detail was remarkable," noted Robin Rose, dean of Student Life, which sponsored the workshop.
No less important is Rakpraja's service as a member of the Campus Life and Student Services Task Force, which evaluated how University policies affect the quality of campus life. Its recommendations were recently submitted to President Sheila E. Blumstein.
Rakpraja will graduate with a bachelor's degree in public policy.
Elise Roy of Washington, D.C., has excelled as an athlete in soccer and lacrosse and as a mentor to Brown students with disabilities.
Roy recently received the Arlene Gorton Cup, given to the female varsity athlete who most consistently displays the ideals of sportsmanship and fair play. She was named a USAA All-American Scholar and received academic all-Ivy honors in soccer. She received the Dobson-Kay Coaches Award in soccer for her leadership, dedication and fair play, and the Sara Nicholson Award, given to the senior who has shown the most dedication and loyalty to the soccer team.
Off the field, Roy, who has a hearing impairment, has worked toward campus visibility and equality for students with disabilities. She works with Bear-Able Mentors, which helps new Brown students with disabilities. That program is run through Brown's Disability Support Services, for which Roy has created a Web site. She also is a Web designer and program collaborator for Brown Exploration of Adaptive Recreational Sports, and has served on the Disabled Women in Sports Task Force, which helped determine how adequately the Women's Sports Foundation meets the needs of disabled women athletes.
Roy was a Fogarty Fellow on the Rhode Island Governor's Commission on Disabilities this past winter, and she regularly addresses residents at Rhode Island Hospital to help them understand the power physicians have to limit or raise the expectations disabled patients have about themselves.
She will graduate Monday with a degree in psychology, and has been accepted to Georgetown University Law School.
Robert Scholl of South Vienna, Ohio, is a member of the 1999 Ivy League championship football team. A fullback, he is a four-year letter winner on the squad.
Scholl is among the University's scholar-athletes who volunteer as tutors in the classrooms of the Vartan Gregorian Elementary School at Fox Point. He also tutored his fellow Brown students in geology and economics, the concentrations in which Scholl will receive his degree Monday.
As a member of the Student Athlete Advisory Board, Scholl has worked closely with faculty, staff and administrators to enrich the college experience for student-athletes on campus. In addition, Scholl served on the University Disciplinary Council for one term, and was a Meiklejohn advisor in his junior year.
Phenomenal organizational abilities coupled with grace and wit have helped Hannah Tamar Solomon excel as a campus leader.
For three years, Solomon, of Miami, has served on the 10-member Steering Committee of the Meiklejohn Program. Solomon's selection to serve on the Steering Committee is a testament to her abilities as an compassionate community-builder: She was asked to join the committee at the end of her first year at Brown, never having served as a Meiklejohn advisor.
As a Steering Committee member, Solomon organized the Spring Sphinx Club Lecture for faculty and Meiklejohns. In her junior and senior years, she worked with Joyce Reed, the associate dean of the College who runs the program, on the organizational function of the Steering Committee. She also was the student advisor who was teamed with the president of the University. Solomon's authorship of the program's official publications on advising has earned praise for sensitivity and clarity.
At the same time, Solomon has been fully invested in Brown's Jewish community. She has co-chaired the Hillel Community Relations Council, was president of the Jewish Student Union, and chaired the Campus Jewish Appeal. She also was a peer mediator through the Brown University Mediation Program.
Solomon will graduate with a bachelor's degree in Judaic studies and African-American studies.
Track and field has been a key outlet for the leadership and service activities of Nakia Paula Thomas of Bronx, N.Y.
Thomas has been co-captain of the varsity track and field team since 1996. During that time, the team earned an Ivy League championship and won the New England Challenge Cup. Thomas earned All-East status in the distance medley relay and Second Team All Ivy status in the 4x800m relay.
Since the fall of 1998, Thomas has served on the executive board of the Ivy League Association of African American Athletes. Her responsibilities included coordinating the association's community service activities. She also coordinated community service activities as a member of Brown Sisters United.
In the fall of 1998, Thomas taught track and field to a group of third- and fifth-graders at The Wheeler School. She also has volunteered at the Vartan Gregorian Elementary School at Fox Point, providing classroom assistance to physically and mentally challenged sixth-grade students. At the John Hope Settlement House, she assisted in community development and crisis intervention.
As activities coordinator for the senior class, Thomas organized forums, concerts and weekly senior nights.
After graduating Monday with a bachelor's degree in ethnic studies and African American studies, Thomas will participate in a two-year corporate finance program at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
Service and leadership for Kumi Walker of Columbia, Md., come through the men's varsity soccer team and Brown's Christian community.
Walker was the 1999 recipient of the Class of 1937 Soccer Trophy, presented to the player who through sportsmanship, performance and influence has contributed most to the sport at Brown. For two years, Walker represented men's soccer as a representative on Student Athletic Advisory Board. Both years, the team won the Ivy League championship.
Walker also was honored with the Isaiah 40:31 Award, presented only occasionally by the University Chaplain's Office to an athlete who merits special recognition for the Christian example he or she sets in their sport, in the classroom, and within the broader Brown community. Among the reasons for his selection was his faithful service as deacon/steward in the Manning Chapel African American Worship Service.
As a member of the Imani Student Council, Walker helped program the worship for students of color, and represented their concerns. Walker also was the council's representative on the University Interfaith Council.
Walker has been offered a position with Goldman Sachs after he graduates Monday with a degree in political science.
Alicia Bianca Woodley of Philadelphia is a leader among Brown athletes and pre-med students.
She is enrolled in the University's Program in Liberal Medical Education, which allows students to combine undergraduate and professional studies in medicine in an eight-year continuum. When Woodley graduates on Monday, she will receive a bachelor's degree in Latin American studies. She will take some time off to work at Goldman Sachs, where she has been an intern for two summers, before returning to complete her medical degree.
While at Brown, Woodley was a member of the women's track and field team and co-chair of the Ivy League African American Athletic Association. She was co-president of the senior class, and vice president of the Black and Latino Pre-Med Association. She also is a founding member of Face 2 Face, a community dialogue forum. She was a member of Brown Sisters United, and in 1998 was communications chair of the Organization of United African Peoples, a organization that addresses the needs and concerns of African, African-American. Afro-Caribbean students in all areas on campus.
Graduating senior Danielle Saint Louis has been named the Howard R. Swearer Public Service Fellow. The fellowship, established in memory of Howard R. Swearer, the 15th president of Brown to reflect his commitment to public service, provides funds to pursue a full year of public service in an underserved community or country.
Saint Louis will return to Yoff, Senegal, to support installation of water supply, wastewater and solid waste infrastructure. In partnership with the Eco Yoff Habitat Project, Saint Louis will help plan and implement ecologically sound and sustainable sanitation systems for Yoff, a community rapidly changing from its roots as a traditional fishing village. Saint Louis spent last summer in Yoff conducting household water usage analysis.
A double concentrator in development studies and civil engineering, Saint Louis recently completed her senior thesis on the evolution of West African residential architecture from an engineering design perspective.
The Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life has selected Laura Pilar Gelfman to receive the Interfaith Leadership Award, presented to a graduating senior who has made a significant contribution to inter-religious community building and programming.
The award will be presented to Gelfman, of Miami, Fla., on Sunday, May 28 at the Baccalaureate Lunch.
For three years, Gelfman has organized the weekly Interfaith Supper and discussion of spirituality under a program she and other student leaders initiated called "Why Talk at All?" The supper and discussion is sponsored by the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life.
The award is presented from the Gladys C. and Sherwin J. Kapstein Family Fund and the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island. Mrs. Kapstein '40, was a member of the University's Board of Religious Affairs from its inception in 1984 until her death in June 1993. She and her husband, Sherwin Kapstein '39, are the benefactors for the Brown/RISD Hillel's Kapstein Jewish Student Program Fund.
The Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life is awarding for the first time the President James Manning Medal to honor graduating students for excellence in the study and practice of religion.
Joseph Lennis Edmonds Jr. of Baltimore, Md., and Gregory McGonigle of Westwood, Mass., are being honored at the Baccalaureate Lunch Sunday, May 28.
Edmonds, a leader in the Brown Christian Fellowship, is being honored for his work on initiating discussions on black and Jewish dialogue. McGonigle is being recognized for his work with the Multi-Faith Council and his research of world religions in Rhode Island.