Three SESP seniors were honored recently with awards recognizing outstanding volunteer service. Jessica Joslin won the Alumnae Board award, and Darby Hollinrake and Lauren Parnell won Outstanding Volunteer awards through a partnership with the Evanston community.
Jessica Joslin
The Alumnae Board of Northwestern University will present its Senior Woman Award for Volunteer Service to Jessica Joslin (BS06) at the Northwestern Undergraduate Leadership Awards Ceremony in June. Joslin received the $1,500 award for "outstanding volunteer service to the university community" during her undergraduate years.Joslin's volunteer contributions include serving as the College Feminists co-director and the Associated Student Government's security chair, where she lobbied to get new lights on Sheridan Road and blue light emergency phones. After swastikas were found on campus, she took action because "the safety of my new campus home was violated and I wanted to help," she says. During her senior year, motivated by a rash of attacks that unsettled students, she taught a student-organized Communication Studies seminar called Building and Sustaining the Northwestern Community, which brought together student leaders. In her essay for the Alumnae Board, Joslin describes these experiences with improving student safety and community building as "hilltop moments," experiences that "weave our life's purpose."
In the fall Joslin will be working toward a master's of divinity degree at Harvard University. "I plan to become an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister and ultimately a university chaplain - and I hope I can find my way back to NU someday," she says.
Lauren Parnell and Darby Hollinrake
Two of the five Northwestern students who received Outstanding Volunteer awards for their work in the Evanston community were SESP undergraduates Lauren Parnell and Darby Hollinrake (both BS06). Parnell and Hollinrake received their awards at an April 25 reception as the University, Evanston Township High School and the Evanston Community Foundation joined together to recognize exceptional community service.
Hollinrake was honored for her efforts on behalf of Best Buddies, an organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of people with individual disabilities through one-to-one friendships. "I've had the same 'buddy' for four years through my participation in Best Buddies," says Hollinrake, who is president of the organization this year after serving as the activities coordinator during her junior year. Her role involves fundraising, recruitment, running information sessions, interviewing potential members, setting up buddy pairs and planning outings. "Every other Tuesday we take university vans to Misericordia, their group home," says Hollinrake. "This year we have decorated t-shirts, made picture frames, held a talent show, and helped out at Misericordia's bakery."
Parnell, who completed SESP's Certificate in Service Learning Program last spring, was honored for volunteer leadership that includes serving as the co-chair of the Northwestern Community Development Corps for two years and helping to plan the International Youth Volunteerism Summit. In addition, she has made service trips to Guatemala and has volunteered regularly at Connections for the Homeless, Inspiration Cafe, Centro Romero and Mather Pavilion.
Last Modified: 8/14/09