Service award to honor ‘Carnegie Heroes’

Have you ever had an experience with a true “hero” on campus, whether in the classroom, on a service project, or in your daily life? With the new Carnegie Heroes Program, sponsored by student government and Carnegie Mellon’s service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, now is your chance to recognize the heroes in your life. “We will be distributing applications in the next week and asking students to tell us about people who they believe should be nominated as a hero,” said Angel Gonzalez, a junior social and decision sciences major and member of Alpha Phi Omega.

Students, faculty, or staff at Carnegie Mellon who have had an impact can be nominated. An individual can be nominated to be a hero for numerous reasons, not solely based on community service. All that is required to submit a nomination is an application found on the student government website (https://stugov.andrew.cmu.edu) and a 250-word explanation as to why the nominated person is worthy of being called a “Carnegie Hero.”

The Carnegie Heroes program originated from senior H&SS interdisciplinary social and decision sciences major Rotimi Abimbola, the student body president.

“In the fall semester, after hearing of many instances and stories about members of the campus community performing extraordinary acts of kindness and goodwill, I came up with the idea of creating a program that celebrates service and building community on campus,” Abimbola said.

Alpha Phi Omega and the student government had already cooperated on the Help Haiti Campaign and found another good opportunity to combine their strengths with the Carnegie Heroes program.

A committee consisting of students from both Alpha Phi Omega and student government will determine who is to be honored at the third annual President’s Dinner.

With recognition now being offered to those who perform myriad good deeds on campus, student government and Alpha Phi Omega hope students will use this opportunity to learn more about the various types of service offered on campus.

Medini Annavajhala, a sophomore in the Science and Humanities Scholars program, and the AmeriCorps Service Scholar for this school year, felt the award program would have a positive effect.

“I think highlighting the fact that there is actually community service on campus will make people more willing to give up part of their own time and put in time to work towards a better and more cohesive community,” Annavajhala said.

As one of two AmeriCorps Scholars on campus, Annavajhala’s work on campus is dedicated to developing service programs and supporting the campus service organizations among other initiatives.

Information about the Carnegie Heroes program can be obtained by e-mailing carnegieheroes@gmail.com or by joining the program’s Facebook event.
Paper copies of the application can be found at stugov.andrew.cmu.edu/executive/news/2010/nominate-your-carnegie-hero.html. Forms can then be turned into any of the boxes that have been placed in the University Center and at the Heinz and Tepper buildings.