Students recognized for service to the Carroll County community

McDaniel College students were honored at the 7th annual Community Engagement Luncheon and Showcase organized by the Center for Experience and Opportunity (CEO) May 1. 

For the first time, a student speaker, Samantha Yates, spoke about her community service involvement during her time at McDaniel. An English major with an Economics minor, Yates, a senior from Shepherdstown, W.Va., was named a 2016 Newman Civic Fellow and was also awarded a Griswold-Zepp award to start a composting initiative on campus along with sophomores Sylvan Greyson of Nova Scotia, Canada, and Thea Westlake-Stearns of Seattle. She also participated in the Baltimore Collegetown LeaderShape program and earned a Duke of Edinburgh bronze award.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s silver and bronze awards were awarded to five students for completing a self-development program dedicated to achievement in community service, physical fitness, special skills and an adventurous journey. The program was founded in 1956 by Britain’s Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Silver awards were presented to sophomores Carinna Powell, an Exercise Science major from Chesapeake Beach, Md., and Carter Trousdale, a Business Administration-Economics major from Hanover Park, Ill. Bronze awards went to senior Zoe Lewis, a Biology major from Perry Hall, Md.; sophomore Angel Petty of Baltimore and first-year student Alyssa Swartz of Dillsburg, Pa.

McDaniel President Roger Casey (left) and Kristen Maddock (right) with Duke of Edinburgh awardees (l. to r.) Carter Trousdale, Zoe Lewis, Angel Petty, Carinna Powell and Alyssa Swartz.

Jeb Shingler, a junior Environmental Chemistry major from Hagerstown, Md., was acknowledged for receiving a $3,000 Griswold-Zepp award from the College to organize an alternative spring break experience in McDowell County, W.Va. Environmental Studies professor Mona Becker, along with the 13 McDaniel students led by Shingler, worked on a number of community outreach projects.

McDaniel President Roger Casey presented sophomore Jasmin Chavez-Cruz of Falls Church, Va., with a framed certificate for being named a 2017 Newman Civic Fellow by Campus Compact. She is one of just 273 student leaders nationwide selected for the honor. A double major in Political Science and Spanish, Chavez has also been selected among 50 students from across the country as a 2017 national fellow for the Young People For. (YP4).

The Nora Roberts Foundation Faculty Award for Community Engagement, which provides McDaniel faculty members with financial support for projects that enrich student learning through community engagement activities, was awarded to Dana Ferraris, a visiting chemistry professor, and instructor Steve Robertson. Ferraris and Robertson along with several McDaniel science majors held question-and-answer sessions at Carroll County high schools on “What high school students need to know about college life as a science major.” Read more.

McDaniel Provost Julia Jasken with Nora Roberts Foundation Faculty Award for Community Engagement honoree Chemistry professor Dana Ferraris. Not pictured but also an honoree is Chemistry instructor Stephen Robertson.

President Casey and Bonnae Meshulam, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Westminster, were highlighted for receiving the Maryland-DC Campus Compact (MDCCC) Campus Community Partnership Award. The award recognizes one outstanding campus-community partnership that produces measurable impact in both student participants and the community.

Carroll County Food Sunday, a nonprofit organization that supports Carroll County residents in meeting their emergency and supplemental food needs, was named the College’s nonprofit partner of the year. Throughout the year, McDaniel has partnered with Carroll County Food Sunday on several on campus service events, including the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, “A Day On, Not a Day Off” event. 

Carroll County Food Sunday executive director Ed Leister (center, left) and administrator Dennis Fahey with McDaniel President Roger Casey (left) and McDaniel Center for Experience and Opportunity associate director Kristen Maddock and director Connie Sgarlata