Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

22 Students Receive Service Awards

Twenty-two Georgetown students were recognized for community service activism at the 10th annual Lena Landegger Community Service Award Dinner Sunday night in Riggs Library.

“The students were chosen from a pool of over 60 candidates for their significant effort in community service,” said Lynne Hirschfeld, a member of the selection committee for the prizes.

The awards were founded in 1995 by the Landegger Charitable Foundation to honor the life and legacy of Lena Landegger, a community leader and businesswoman in New York who died in 1992, five years after Georgetown awarded her an honorary doctoral degree.

Her son, George F. Landegger (SFS ’58), said that the award was created by the foundation to remember his mother’s firm belief in doing pro bono work and to recognize the Jesuit ideal of service to others.

“This whole program honors the name of the university and it’s an honor for our family name to be associated with it,” Landegger said.

Jeanne Lord, associate vice president for student affairs and chair of the selection committee, expressed thanks for the Landegger’s long history of involvement with the university.

“We are so grateful for the family and for their love of Georgetown,” she said.

One of the $2,500 cash awards was given to Nate Wright (COL ’06) for his work in founding Students Taking Action Now: Darfur, a campus group dedicated to raising awareness of the violence and humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. Wright traveled to Sudan over spring break to film a documentary about the crisis with MTV.

Rahul Bansal (MSB ’07), one of the recipients of this year’s award, said he was also grateful to the Landeggers.

Bansal received the award for his extensive involvement with the arch of Dimes, for which he has raised over $80,000. He said he was proud that Georgetown placed such an emphasis on service to the others.

“It’s an honor to know that Georgetown prides itself on community service and holds it as such a strong part of its tradition,” he said.

N. Rashad Jones (SFS ’06) received his Landegger award for numerous community service projects, including his founding of Georgetown University Men Advocating Relationship Responsibility, an organization devoted to the prevention of sexual assault.

Like many of the award winners, Jones said he plans to use a portion of his prize money to further his interest in social justice.

Selection committee member Raymond Acevedo said that all of this year’s winners demonstrated an impressive depth of involvement.

“[It’s] encouraging to see that people do care,” Acevedo said.

Justine Landegger (COL ’04), George Landegger’s daughter, also attended the event. She recently returned from six months in Darfur, where she worked as a volunteer. She plans to return to the area in the next few weeks, she said.

Justine said that her experiences at Georgetown contributed to her desire to aid victims of the crisis in Sudan.

“Georgetown really fostered a good atmosphere for me to become involved in community service,” she said.

Landegger said he was happy about his daughter’s commitment to service but also worried for her safety in the conflict-torn region.

“I am proud and concerned,” Landegger said.

He also said he doubted how much humanitarian efforts alone could do to solve the Darfur crisis. There needs to be political action, not just humanitarian aid, in order to find a permanent solution to the area’s problems, he said.

“We need to do something about the genocide,” regardless of the cost, he said.

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