Campus Life Service Awards

Each year, Stetson University's Campus Life Department recognizes outstanding student contributions to the Stetson University community and those who support, inspire, and empower our students. The Center for Service Learning gives ten awards at this banquet to students, faculty, and staff focusing on community engagement, service-learning, and advocacy.

Advocate Award: Presented to a student that has shown exemplary leadership in advocacy work and a commitment to systemic reform and social justice issues. They work towards the goal of sustainable social change by rallying students, faculty, staff, and the local community to join in their movement.

This student has held leadership positions in the Bonner scholars program and brought STAND (The Student Anti-Genocide Coalition) to Campus. She is a catalyst for social change at Stetson and serves with the compassion and energy that only true leaders possess.

-Marylin Winkle

Community Partner Award: Presented to an organization in the local community that has built a strong relationship with all factions of Stetson University. They inspire and empower students, faculty and staff to share in social causes.

This partner has been an integral part of the Stetson service community. They have built a lasting relationship with The Student Coalition to End Homelessness, one of our many amazing student service organizations, and were the site for many service projects throughout the year. They were present for both of our Volunteer Fairs, played a huge role in the success of the Hunger Banquet and were a site at each of our ITS days. They even took part in many Greenfeather programs as a judge.

The Neighborhood Center

Grassroots Volunteer Award: Presented to a student that focuses primarily in grassroots volunteerism. They work on building sustainable relationships with the local community.

This student is one of the most impressive leaders at Stetson University for his true passion to empower others and make sure that all voices in need can be heard. These eloquent words were written by the person who nominated him for this award and certainly ring true. This student helped start the program YESA (Youth Empowerment for Sports Activities) in Pierson and now is working on a project to expand Stetson's relationship with the community of Seville, another Mexican American community near Pierson. He has helped to build sustainable relationships in the Pierson community and will assuredly do so in Seville as well.

Nicolas Abelenda

Servant Leader Award: Presented to a student that shows exemplary leadership in service projects. They lead with a deep sense of humility, compassionate awareness of the individuals involved, and commitment to empowering and facilitating the gifts of others.

This incredible student servant leader truly possesses the values, hard work, and dedication necessary to empower, facilitate and lead her fellow students. She worked tirelessly on many service projects including The Hunger Banquet, The Volunteer Fair, First Year Student Service Day, and much more. She was the committee coordinator for Greenfeather, the head chair for this year's Relay For Life and she served as the event coordinator at the Center for Service Learning.

Brittany Stark

Service Champion Award: Presented to a faculty member that has shown exemplary leadership in inspiring service to others, and works to engage Stetson students in meaningful volunteerism, advocacy, and service-learning.

This faculty member has demonstrated not only a willingness to work with staff and students on projects of a co-curricular, civic-engagement nature; he actively seeks to make those kinds of partnerships amongst his students, fellow faculty and staff members to ensure that such experiences are as enriching as possible for the students and the community. I am proud to present this award to

Dr. Paul Lachelier

Facilitator Award: Presented to a member of the Stetson community that provides exemplary leadership in inspiring collaboration. They work to advance the cause of uniting groups and individuals in collective service to others.

This student has shown exemplary leadership and passion for the community. She shows a genuine focus upon others. She is a leader, great team member, and excellent originator. She has held the position as Senior Intern for the Bonner Scholars Program this school year and has been an amazing mentor for all of the Bonner Students.

Amanda Reece

Service Learning Award: Presented to a course that has seamlessly integrated academics with meaningful service.Their service has had a positive impact on the community and inspired fellow students to take part in engagement opportunities.

In this service learning course Stetson students are helping to advance participatory democracy in Florida and on Stetson's campus. Specifically, since January 2009, students have been working to organize "deliberative opinion polls" (DOPs), DOPs are a relatively new and participatory form of democracy designed to improve on conventional opinion polls, and town hall meetings. This is something that has gotten many students on campus involved in service learning and has integrated academics with meaningful service.

The Course "Community Organizing for Social Change"

Student Service Organization of the Year: Recognizes a student service organization that has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to their organization's vision and positive contributions to the community, both on and off campus.

This student service organization has done many service projects on campus and in the community. They helped with the Hunger Banquet in the fall, have held food and clothing drives. They have worked closely with our community partner of the year and have fostered close personal relationships with the members of the DeLand community that they strive to help.

The Student Coalition to End Homelessness

Student Service Project of the Year: Recognizes an outstanding service project for its approach in bettering the community and for encouraging Stetson students, faculty, and staff to do the same. This award will be presented to the creators or managers of the service event for their tireless work in making the event so successful.

This project has benefited an incredible amount of children in an area where Stetson had not ventured before.The project benefits students in the Pierson community and gives them an outlet for their talent and energy. This outlet is sports and it has brought a whole community closer together. This program has also served to shed light on many of the issues that Mexican American families face in Pierson and allowed Stetson students to dream about how they can help cultivate change.

YESA (Youth Empowerment through Sports Activities)

Innovative Student Service Project Award: Recognizes a new service project that captured the imagination of the Stetson Community while also fulfilling its goal of creating a meaningful impact. This award will be presented to the creators or managers of the service event for their tireless work in making the event so successful.

This category had many worthy nominees including:

A 5 Kilometer run followed by an enlightening and entertaining speech on the signs of depression.

An exhibition basketball game that pitted a group of Intramural Athletes versus the Stetson Basketball team

The winner of the category, however, went above and beyond to bring a diverse group of Stetson students together to become aware of one of the worst genocides our planet has ever seen. It made such an impact on our campus that on Saturday April 25th (This Saturday), many of the same students will be attending a rally in Orlando to further the cause of the Invisible Children.

The Rescue- Keelyn Hermansdorfer