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Events:
 Howard R. Swearer Student Humanitarian Award
The Howard R. Swearer Student Humanitarian Award recognizes students for
their innovative strategies to address community issues and needs, and
their efforts to build and sustain this work amongst their peers and
within their institution. Winners demonstrate a strong ability to lead,
inspire and engage other students and/or members of the institution.
Each year from 1987-2008, Campus Compact member presidents were able to
nominate one student for this prestigious award. Five students were then
selected from across the country to receive this distinguished award for
their outstanding public service along with $1,500 to help strengthen or
sustain the service program of their design or choice.
2008 Winner: Alex Alanos, Northeastern University
Alex began his work as a co-op student serving full-time with the
non-profit Peace Games at the Tobin School in Roxbury. As the school's
three year partnership with Peace Games came to an end, Alex felt a need
to continue the important work the full-time Peace Games staff member
provided. He worked to bring together his peers from Northeastern
University who had seen the positive shift in the culture of the whole
school community at Tobin because of their volunteer engagement with the
Peace Games program. Alex knew they could support the school in their
continued use of this curriculum, and expand offerings to address
related interests as they developed. After a few months of working with
the students, families, community members and staff at the Tobin School,
along with the Peace Games staff, the student group Social Change
through Peace Games (SCtPG) was established to sustain and expand upon
the Peace Games program in the Tobin School. After a successful school
year, the organization was asked by two more Peace Games partnership
schools to bring programming into their schools so that the work could
be expanded and sustained. Today Social Change has an Executive Board of
twenty students and Alex currently serves as the Executive Director
working directly with regional Peace Games and Northeastern University
staff. Three years after the start of their work at Tobin, SCtPG has 124
students working in partnership with the Tobin, the Holmes, the Hale,
and St. Patrick's Grammar Schools to provide peacemaking resources and
opportunities to over 700 students and sixty school staff members.
With Alex's leadership, the group has also developed and started work on
the 3 Communities Initiative to empower Northeastern students to become
actively involved in peacemaking, education, and social change-themed
initiatives on campus through awareness raising campaigns, in the city
through programming in additional K-8 schools, and the world through
working with partner organizations in conflict ridden regions, to make a
positive difference in the lives of young people. Through programming in
these three communities, SCtPG is committed to ending the increasing
cycle of youth violence by implementing a refreshing, proactive approach
to violence prevention. Just as children receive math, science and
English every day in school, SCtPG offers children daily opportunities
to learn about peacemaking, respect, friendship, and civic engagement
among many other topics to help the students become agents of change.
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