Multiple Hope College students are being recognized by Michigan Campus Compact (MCC) for their dedication and commitment to service, including through one of only six “Outstanding Community Impact Awards” being presented statewide.
The awards will be presented during the organization’s 2012 Outstanding Student Service Awards Ceremony on Saturday, April 14, at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center in East Lansing.
Each year, MCC recognizes students from member colleges and universities across the state for their outstanding commitment to service-learning and civic engagement. Three types of awards are given: the Outstanding Community Impact Award, the Commitment to Service Award, and the Heart and Soul Award.
Senior Andrea Toren of Ada will be one of only six students—five undergraduates and one graduate student—statewide to receive “Outstanding Community Impact Awards” for making service an integral part of their college experience by their significant contribution to community resources. The recipients are chosen by MCC from among students selected by their home institutions to receive one of two “Commitment to Service Awards” available to each member college or university. The award includes $200 to donate to the organization of the student’s choice.
Toren led development in the fall of 2009 of “TWIG” (Together We’re Involving Generations), a program that now pairs nearly 30 Hope students with the retiree residents of Freedom Village for weekly interaction and other activities. Her other service on campus includes leading a women’s Bible study through the campus ministries program and having been an Orientation Assistant for the siblings of incoming freshmen. Off-campus, she works with a group of fifth-grade girls through a girls’ club at her local church, and was a camp counselor at Camp Sunshine.
She is an English secondary-education major who is also minoring in history education. She is the daughter of Kevin and Shelley Toren of Ada, and a 2008 graduate of Grand Rapids Christian High School.
A Commitment to Service Award will be presented to senior Samuel Tzou of Midland. The award is presented for breadth or depth of community service and the demonstration of meaningful reflection.
Heart and Soul Awards will be presented to sophomore Christopher Davis of Shelby Township; senior Michael Dirksen of Grand Rapids; junior Allie Granitz of Sun Prairie, Wis.; senior Carly Henkel of Erie; senior Laine Klopfenstein of Chicago, Ill.; junior Celeste Norlander of Brooklyn Park, Minn.; junior Allison Springett of Bangor; junior Jayne Vroon of Holland; and senior Kevin Watson of Buchanan. The award is given to students to recognize their time, effort and personal commitment to their community through service.
The students’ service spans the wide range of such activity by students across the campus, from commitment individually in working with local organizations, to participation in major charitable fund-raising efforts involving hundreds of students. A prominent example of the latter is the annual student-organized Dance Marathon held on behalf of Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, which on March 10 topped $1 million in funds raised across the event’s 13 history, a major milestone for a college of Hope’s size. In January 2011, Hope received national recognition for exemplary service-learning as one of only 115 colleges and universities across the country named to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s “2010 Community Engagement Classification.”
Michigan Campus Compact is a coalition of college and university presidents who are committed to fulfilling the public purpose of higher education. The compact promotes the education and commitment of Michigan college students to be civically engaged citizens, through creating and expanding academic, co-curricular and campus-wide opportunities for community service, service-learning and civic engagement. Some 43 Michigan colleges and universities are members of MCC. More information may be obtained online at www.micampuscompact.org.