Providence, RI — Campus Compact has named five college students whose work shows an extraordinary commitment to improving their local and global communities as recipients of the 2008 Howard R. Swearer Student Humanitarian Award. The students receiving this national award are Alexander Alvanos of Northeastern University (MA), Tryna Dalton of River Parishes Community College (LA), Elisabeth Stern of Cornell University (NY), Anh Tran of the University of Minnesota, and Ian Yaffe of Bowdoin College (ME).

These students have tackled a wide range of social issues, from hunger in the local community to health care internationally. Ian Yaffe launched Food Forward, a program that transports nearly 3,000 pounds of unused food from campus to a community soup kitchen each semester, while working to educate his fellow students about poverty and hunger issues. Alex Alvanos created the student group Social Change through Peace Games, which partners with elementary schools to promote peace-making in troubled neighborhoods. Tryna Dalton leads efforts at local public schools to educate students about disaster preparedness. Elisabeth Stern co-founded Cover Africa, a student organization dedicated to reducing the global burden of malaria, and organized a service-learning course on malaria interventions in Ghana. Anh Tran established the nonprofit organization Biology without Borders to improve public health in under-resourced nations.

“The range of depth of these student-led programs is remarkable,” notes Maureen F. Curley, president of Campus Compact. “Students at our member colleges and universities clearly care deeply about issues that affect not only their local communities but also communities around the world. What’s most impressive, though, is that they are creating effective new avenues to address these issues.”

Campus Compact gives the Swearer Award annually to five students who have been nominated by their college or university for creating an innovative approach to addressing a social, educational, environmental, health, economic, or legal issue within a community. Each award includes a $1,500 prize–$250 to support a service program or organization the student has worked with and $1,250 for the student’s professional development. The award is named in honor of the life and work of Howard R. Swearer, the 15th president of Brown University and one of Campus Compact’s founders.

More information about the Howard R. Swearer Student Humanitarian Award is available at /awards/swearer/.

Campus Compact

Campus Compact is a national coalition of more than 1,100 college and university presidents—representing some 6 million students—who are committed to fulfilling the civic purposes of higher education. As the only national association dedicated to this mission, Campus Compact is a leader in building civic engagement into campus and academic life. For more information, visit /.