Alumni Honored
for Public Service
Posted April 5, 2000
During the Charter Day 2000 ceremony in Zellerbach Hall, the campus presented two prestigious awards to accomplished alumni.
Indian educational reform leader Urvashi Sahni accepted the Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award, given annually to foreign alumnus with a distinguished record of service to his or her country.
Sahni was honored for her efforts to reform schools and improve the lives of students and teachers in her native state of Uttar Pradesh and for her role there as a UNICEF consultant. She received her doctorate from the Graduate School of Education in 1994.
On behalf of the campus, Chancellor Berdahl also bestowed the Peter E. Haas Public Service Award, which recognizes an alum who has made a significant public contribution -- in community service, health care, environmental work or education -- within the United States.
Lawyer and environmental activist Dwight Steele, who received his undergraduate degree from Berkeley in 1935 and his J.D. from Boalt School of Law in 1939, was the first recipient.
Steele was honored for his work as an advocate and volunteer in grassroots environmental causes such as protecting San Francisco Bay, the Sierra Nevada and Lake Tahoe.
The public service award carries a cash prize of $20,000, and an additional $20,000 for a charity selected by the recipient.
April 5-11, 2000
(Volume 28, Number 27)
Copyright 2000, The Regents of the University of
California.
Produced and maintained by the Office
of Public Affairs
at UC
Berkeley.
Comments? E-mail berkeleyan@pa.urel.berkeley.edu.