Georgetown Student Honored for Community Service

Georgetown University student Haamid “Happy” Johnson (C'07) was named one of five winners of Campus Compact’s annual Howard R. Swearer Student Humanitarian Award. The award was given in recognition of Johnson’s dedication and service to others, and in particular for his founding of Blanket New Orleans, a non-profit organization committed to supplying blankets and other supplies to homeless and needy residents of the city.

During the 2005-06 winter break, Johnson spent four weeks living in New Orleans, volunteering for the American Red Cross Mobile Feeding Unit in disaster relief efforts from damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. Upon his return, Johnson created Blanket New Orleans, a non-profit dedicated to providing blankets for the city’s displaced residents. The organization has raised more than $4,000 and delivered more than 400 blankets and fifty care packages of sanitizer and tissues to needy residents of New Orleans.

“We are delighted that Happy has been selected for this prestigious award,” said Kathleen Maas Weigert, director of Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service. “The honor is a tribute to the clear focus and abundant energy that he brings to improving the lives of those around him.”

The award is named in honor of Howard R. Swearer, the fifteenth president of Brown University and one of the founders of Campus Compact. Swearer believed universities should be communities of compassionate people involved in serious intellectual pursuits, but never divorced from the realities of their communities.

John Carroll University’s Student Newspaper, Wins 13 National and Regional Awards

The John Carroll University student newspaper, The Carroll News, set another award-winning record this year, by earning 13 national and regional awards and setting an achievement record in the paper’s 80-year history. Recognition comes from the Society for Collegiate Journalists (SCJ) and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) for the 2005-2006 academic year.

“It’s wonderful that these national and regional organizations have honored our hard-working, dedicated student journalists for the high quality product they have provided the JCU community this school year,” says Robert Noll, an instructor in the Department of Communications and Theatre Arts at John Carroll University and the advisor to The Carroll News. “I’m very proud of our staff of reporters and editors.”

The awards received from Society for Collegiate Journalists included awards in overall excellence, editorials, personal opinion column, features, photography, and design, to name a few.

According to the judge’s comments from the Society of Professional Journalists, The Carroll News offered “the best range of content. The staff knows its audience, focusing on student-related articles, while providing a nice selection of interesting feature, national and opinion pieces. The layouts were attractive with a good effort to incorporate graphics and creativity into the feature design.”

Seattle University Receives Largest Gift in SU History

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $10 million as a challenge gift toward the Learning Commons and Lemieux Library Project at Seattle University. It is the largest single donation in the university’s 115-year history.

The Gates gift is the first major donation in a $35.5 million campaign to renovate SU’s 1960s-era library and build an adjoining high-tech learning commons to serve the university’s 7,000-plus undergraduate and graduate students.

"Students have rightly identified a new library and learning commons as the most important project for the university to undertake," said President Stephen V. Sundborg, S.J. "We feel very fortunate that the Gates Foundation acknowledges that assessment and are grateful for their support."

"We recognize the outstanding education Seattle University provides and the important ways it serves our community through its diversity and outreach," said Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "The new Learning Commons and Library will support the university in carrying out its mission. We are pleased to contribute toward making this possible."

University of Scranton Teacher of the Year

The University of Scranton has awarded, William J. Parente, Ph.D., professor of political science, the Teacher of the Year Award, chosen by the university’s graduating class of 2006.

The Teacher of the Year Award, instituted in 1996 by the academic support committee of the university’s Faculty Senate, honors a faculty member who maintains high standards of academic excellence and fairness and who, through enthusiasm and dedication, inspires interest in a given field of education. Dr. Parente was chosen by the university’s senior class in a secret ballot.

“I am edified that the senior class would elect so hard-nosed and indeed Draconian a professor for this honor,” Dr. Parente commented.

Dr. Parente joined The University of Scranton in 1970 as the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He served as dean until 1985, and has since taught in the political science department at Scranton. Dr. Parente has received four senior Fulbright Fellowships, and has served as Fulbright advisor at The University of Scranton and on the national Fulbright selection and advisory committees. He has also traveled extensively throughout Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union.

All nine of his children graduated from The University of Scranton before going on to professional schools.

Xavier Students Spend Three Months in Ghana

Nine Xavier University students spent January 16 to April 21 in Kumasi, Ghana as part of the University’s Academic Service-Learning Semester Program, living with native host families, studying and serving at local orphanages and shelters.

“It’s important as we pursue greater diversity here to have some experiences available for our students in Africa because of the historical connection between the U.S. and Africa, because Africans have much to teach us about their cultures and histories, and because increasingly that’s where the world’s poorest people are living,” says Kathleen Smythe, associate professor of history, who led the trip.

The one male and eight female students earned credit studying the Twi language, West African Religions, West African History, Asante Dancing and Drumming, and Service Learning. Their days were long, but productive. They went to their service sites in the mornings, to class in the afternoons and then back home to their host families, who were very hospitable and generous.

Each student came away with a good sense of the ways in which Asante culture, Ghanaian history, and world economic systems have influenced the area’s history and the experiences of its peoples over the last five hundred years. The students attending were: Kelli Blum, Emily Gleason, Amanda Lattanzio, Mary Monroe, Megan Shapiro, Monique Simpson, Alex Tucker, and Desiree VanDyne.