Phillips Brooks House Assoc. celebrates public service and honors seniors with awards

The Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) held its sixth annual Public Service Celebration on May 7 in the masters’ residence of Lowell House. A capacity crowd of 240, including PBHA public service leaders and volunteers, Harvard faculty and staff, and invited guests, attended the ceremony. The keynote address — traditionally comprising the reflections of three seniors — was presented by Chimaobi Amutah, Rabia Mir, and Aidan Madigan-Curtis.

The awards given out included the Stride Rite Post-Graduate Fellowships and the Stride Rite Senior Recognition Award (both sponsored by the Stride Rite Community Service Program), the Neil J. Houston and Donald W. Moreland Awards, and the Spirit of PBHA Awards.

The Stride Rite Post Graduate Fellowships are awarded to exceptional graduating seniors who will dedicate the coming year to projects that build on their past service experience and will hopefully play a defining role in their “lifetime commitment” to public service.

Recipients were selected based on a history of continuity and long-term investment in a particular service or social justice focus and the level of impact and community partnership of the proposed project. A great deal of weight is placed on the individual’s passion for the work and how this experience will fit into his/her life path. This year, three fellowships in the range of $25,000 were awarded to Shirley Hufstedler, Hanna Melnick, and Yekaterina Savchuk.

The Stride Rite Senior Recognition Award winners are nominated and selected based on the students’ exceptional dedication to service and social change during their undergraduate careers. The students have approached their volunteer work and the work with their programs as more than just another extracurricular activity. They have exhibited genuine leadership, vision, humility, and selflessness and have sacrificed their time and energy and gained life-perspective and respect for and from those with whom they work.

This year’s recipients are Chimaobi Amutah, Lauren Ardizzone, Kristie-Anne Padron, Alicia Rodriguez, Anne Romatowski, Rajan Sonik, and Jonathan Tannen.

The Donald W. Moreland and the Neil J. Houston Public Service Scholarship Funds are awarded annually to deserving undergraduates who have worked extensively in PBHA programs. The Moreland Award acknowledges selflessness, generosity, and work to ensure a caring society in the future through volunteer service. The Houston Award recognizes moral leadership and extraordinary volunteer commitment.

The 2007 recipients are Mimi Butler ’07, Chiara Condi ’08, Nimet Eren ’07, Jennifer Hsieh ’07, Varun Narendra ’07, Jenny Tsai ’07, Nick Tsang ’07, Winmar Way ’07, and Yaya Wu ’07.

The Spirit of PBHA Award is a special commendation for outstanding organizational contributions that have made it possible for members of PBHA to better serve the community. According to PBHA, these awardees, “through their often-unheralded efforts … make the student-run spirit of PBHA possible.”

This year’s winners include seniors Shayak Sarkar and Rabia Mir.