Berkeleyan

Glynda Hull (center), a professor of education honored for her civic engagement, is flanked by GSE students and staff colleagues Nora Kenney (far left), Mark Nelson, Nanette Woodson, and Adrienne Herd. (Ben Ailes photos)

Activism, service, and engagement recognized at first annual Chancellor's Public Service Awards ceremony
Campus-community members involved in service and public partnerships are honored at event

06 June 2007

The first annual Chancellor's Public Service Awards were presented at a University House ceremony on May 14. The awards, as the chancellor noted in a message to attendees, "recognize the commitment of faculty, staff, and students . whose individual or combined efforts enhance the quality of life of our community, whether here in the Bay Area or around the globe."

Eight individuals and three programs were selected for the 2006-07 awards:

The Research in the Public Interest Award went to Robert Bea, professor of civil and environmental engineering, for his investigation into the failure of New Orleans' levees during Hurricane Katrina.

: Staff honoree Lupe Gallegos-Diaz greets Patricia Cross, emerita professor of education.

The Individual Civic Engagement Award - Staff went to Lupe Gallegos-Diaz of the Office of Multicultural Student Development. In addition to pursuing a Ph.D. in ethnic studies at Berkeley, she is active in many community activities, serving as treasurer of the Bay Area Hispano Institute for Advancement, as a board member of the Voter Registration and Education Project, and in various roles with the Greenlining Institute.

The Individual Civic Engagement Award - Faculty went to Glynda Hull, professor of education, for her role in establishing Digital Underground Storytelling for Youth (DUSTY), an afterschool program that teaches multimedia skills to low-income youth.

There were two honorees in the Individual Civic Engagement Award - Student category. Susan Amrose, a grad student in physics, was honored for her research and volunteer activities in such environments as Darfur (where she helped disseminate fuel-efficient cookstoves for refugees), San Quentin (where she has taught math, astronomy, and physics to inmates), and Bangladesh (where her doctoral research focuses on removing arsenic from drinking water). Gideon Sofer, an undeclared sophomore, was honored for his efforts to raise public awareness about Crohn's Disease, from which he suffers.

Robert Apodoca, a Cal alum and community activist, standing with Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates.

Two individuals also shared the spotlight when the Faculty Service-Learning Leadership Awards were presented. Fred Collignon, professor of city and regional planning, was honored for his leadership in promoting service learning at Berkeley since 1994 - a period during which service-learning course offerings have expanded from 20 to more than 100. Ashok Gadgil, professor in the Energy and Resources Group, was recognized for the service projects that arose out of his Design for Sustainable Communities course, first offered in spring 2006.

The University-Community Partnership Award went to the Center for Community Innovation and the Richmond Equitable Development Initiative, two entities that have collaborated with Berkeley faculty, staff, and students to improve the quality of life in Richmond by such means as increasing access to affordable housing, expanding workforce and economic development, and positioning the city as a model city for green-building practices.

The Mather Good Citizen Award and the Individual Student Civic Engagement Award were presented to Amit Singh Gill, an undergrad majoring in political science. The former award has been presented since 1983 to a graduating senior who exemplifies qualities of leadership, service, and good citizenship; the latter award recognizes Gill's ongoing service to the Suitcase Clinic, which offers multiple services to the city of Berkeley's homeless and low-income populations. The clinic itself was recognized at the ceremony with the Student Group Public Service Award and Community Impact Award.

The Community Impact Award was also presented to AileyCamp, which since 1989 has combined dance instruction with personal-development and communication classes for youth; the first and only West Coast AileyCamp has been a fixture on the Berkeley campus since 2002, serving more than 360 middle-school students to date.