Nazareth College

Community Engagement Awards for Students, Faculty, Staff & Community Partner: The President’s Community Engagement Award recognizes students, faculty, staff and community partners who over the past year have demonstrated a high level of dedication to working for social change. Community engagement asks us to evolve and respond to long-standing and emerging societal needs. This award acknowledges the commitment to learning and growing, responding creatively, and prioritizing the advancement of social justice, inclusion and equity locally, nationally and globally. Whether inside or outside the classroom, we honor the award recipients’ involvement with direct service, capacity building, community organizing and activism, civic and political engagement, community-engaged research, and social innovation.

Dr. David Anderson (Sankofa) Award: This award is in honor of Dr. David Anderson, a Nazareth College adjunct faculty member in the History & Political Science department and a community scholar. Dr. Anderson is also a founding member of Rochester’s Black Storytelling League. This award is given to a faculty member who embodies Sankofa, a symbol of the Akan People’s quest for knowledge with the implication that the quest is based on critical examination, as well as intelligent and patient investigation. This award is given to a faculty member who through their scholarship, teaching, and service connects the past with the present in the proactive effort to positively impact our collective future.

Dr. Marie Watkins Community Partner Award: The Dr. Marie Watkins Community Partner Award recognizes a community partner who creates learning experiences for Nazareth College students that are based on strong reciprocal partnerships, where the interests of the community provide mutual learning opportunities and strengthen learning outcomes of the academic course. This award is given in honor of Dr. Marie Watkins, the founding Director of Nazareth's Center for Service-Learning.

Global Engagement Award: The Global Engagement Award recognizes an undergraduate or graduate student who exemplifies the values of service, solidarity, and effective cross-cultural engagement in an international context.

Jessica Shackelton Maclay Partners for Serving Award: Jessica Shackelton Maclay was a Nazareth graduate from the Social Work Department who, as an alumna, went on to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA, and was one of the founding coordinators of Partners for Serving (PFS) and co-founder of Homework Help (now known as Nazareth College Connection). Tragically, Jessica passed away in 2011. The “Jessica Shackelton Maclay Partners for Serving Award” was created to honor Jessica’s life and community service legacy, and is awarded to key seniors in the PFS program.

Ms. Gaynelle D. Wethers Award: This award is in honor of Ms. Gaynelle Wethers who was the founding director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs at Nazareth College. Ms. Wethers was instrumental in increasing racial diversity at Nazareth while establishing close ties between Nazareth and the larger Rochester community. The Ms. Gaynelle Wethers Award is given to a staff member who has worked toward enhancing racial diversity at the College while developing and maintaining a close relationship with the greater Rochester community.

Newman Civic Fellowship Award: The Newman Civic Fellowship Award honors inspiring college student leaders who have demonstrated an investment in finding solutions for challenges facing communities throughout the country. Each college and university nationally may nominate only one student for this award.

Partners for Learning Award: The Partners for Learning Award is given to one senior from the Partners for Learning Program selected on the basis of exemplary commitment to the program, outstanding leadership, the pursuit of educational equity for students in the Rochester area, and contributions to the vision and excellence of Partners for Learning.

Service-Learning Champion Award: The Service-Learning Champion Award recognizes a faculty member who creates learning experiences for Nazareth College students that are based on strong reciprocal partnerships, where the needs of the community are addressed while students develop knowledge and skills connected to their academic course learning outcomes.

Solidarity and Social Justice Award: The Solidarity and Social Justice Award is given to one undergraduate and one graduate student who has demonstrated a commitment to combating social justice issues as advocates and activists within our local and/or global community. These students have demonstrated active allyship and leadership in addressing social injustice and inequity. 

Sr. Kathy Weider, SSJ Center for Spirituality Award: The Sr. Kathy Weider, SSJ Center for Spirituality Award, is given to a graduating senior who significantly contributed to the furtherance of interfaith dialogue, contemplative practice and social justice in the Nazareth campus community and whose work has been informed by their own deep spirituality. The award is named after Sr. Kathy Weider, SSJ who served as Director of Campus Ministry at Nazareth College from 1984-2000.

Louise Woerner is the founder, chair, and CEO of HCR, a Medicare-certified home health care agency. She founded HCR Cares, a non-profit agency that conducts research and educational activities related to independent living. Her dedicated work has earned her many honors, including the Presidential Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence and induction into Rochester Business Hall of Fame. Her work to advance nursing includes founding the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research. She is the first non-nurse to be inducted into the American Academy of Nursing.

Don H. Kollmorgen has dedicated his life to public and community service. Over the past 35 years he has held leadership positions in the federal government at the U.S. Public Health Service, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service, and the National Institutes of Health. Committed to improving the quality of the life in the communities in which he lives, Mr. Kollmorgern is the founder of the American Chestnut Land Trust, was appointed by former Governor George Pataki to the board of visitors at the Industry School, serves as a trustee at the Strong National Museum of Play, and from 2007-2012 was a member of the Nazareth College board of trustees.

The following individuals previously received the Woerner Kollmorgen Award for Community Service: Ms. Naomi Silver, Dr. Richard Constantino, Mr. Gary Rogers, Dr. Walter Cooper, Mr. Bob Wayland-Smith, Ms. J. Christine Wilson, Mr. Justin L. Vigdor, Mr. Thomas J. Cray, Dr. T. Franklin Williams, Ms. Carter Catlett Williams, and Ms. Nydia Padilla-Rodriguez.