Stride Rite rewards community service

The Stride Rite Community Service Program hosted its 14th annual awards reception on Tuesday (May 7) in appreciation of undergraduates who are dedicated to community service. At this year’s reception – “Public Service: A Lifetime Commitment” – which included a public service panel and awards ceremony, four postgraduate fellowships and 10 senior recognition awards were given.

The postgraduate fellowships award up to $25,000 each spring to graduating Harvard seniors to fund a yearlong public service project. Recipients are selected based on a number of areas, including the type of project to be funded and commitment to public service. The senior recognition prizes, which range from $1,000 to $2,000, are awarded to graduating seniors who have demonstrated outstanding contributions to public service during their undergraduate years.

A committee of Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) staff, University faculty and administrators, Stride Rite alumni, and community leaders evaluated applications for the program’s fellowships and awards.

This year’s postgraduate fellowship recipients include Joshua Cogswell ($25,000), who will work with community leaders in conjunction with the New England Patriots to establish a youth football league in the South End and Lower Roxbury; Kate Johnsen ($25,000), who will design and run a teen drop-in group with South Boston Action Center that will provide career and college counseling, and leadership training for teens; Michael Schultz ($25,000), who will work with two Orthodox day schools in Philadelphia to develop their community service programs, with the goal of improving Jewish/non-Jewish relations; and Zayed Yasin ($15,000), who will work for Aga Khan Health Services in Gilgit, Pakistan, to develop community-based information technology solutions to public health problems in this underserved rural community.

The 10 graduating seniors who received recognition awards this year (and their major service contributions) include Morgan Bradylyons ($2,000), Keylatch Program and PBHA; Trevor Cox ($2,000), PBHA and Refugee Youth Summer Enrichment Program (RYSE); Katherine Tierney ($2,000), Boston Refugee Youth Enrichment (BRYE); Avik Chatterjee ($1,000), Peace Games and Alternative Spring Break; Kelly Doran ($1,000), Project HEALTH and Harvard Square Homeless Shelter; Morgan Hall ($1,000), Mission Hill Afterschool Program; Jan Hridel ($1,000), Best Buddies, Chinatown Program, BRYE, Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, and PBHA; Ariadne Lie ($1,000), Harvard Square Homeless Shelter; Kim Nguyen ($1,000), Chinatown Program and Harvard Square Homeless Shelter; and Dan Lee Vazquez ($1,000), Project HEALTH.

The Stride Rite Community Service Program was established in 1983 by the Stride Rite Foundation to provide training and skills development for students of diverse economic and social backgrounds to become leaders in their communities, both as undergraduates and beyond.