Swearer Center for Public Service

Student Awards

Each year, the Swearer Center recognizes our outstanding undergraduate and graduate students with awards.

Engaged Scholarship Award

For Undergraduate Students

The Engaged Scholarship Award for undergraduate students recognizes a graduating senior who has made community-engaged scholarship integral to their undergraduate experience. [Note: This award is open to any graduating senior, not only to participants in Brown’s Engaged Scholarship Certificate.]

Awardees

  • 2024: Alison Lu '24
  • 2023Leona Hariharan '23 and Roshan Sapkota '23
  • 2022: Alexa Ara '22 and Tiffany Thomas '22
  • 2021: Emily Ma '21 and Sumera Subzwari '21
  • 2020: Tabitha Payne '20 and Katherine (Katie) Vasquez '20​
  • 2019: Maya Singh '19
  • 2018: Kai Salem '18

For Graduate Students

The Engaged Scholarship Award for graduate students recognizes a Brown graduate student (Ph.D., Masters, M.D., or other graduate programs) who has made community-engaged scholarship integral to their graduate experience.

Awardees

  • 2024: Erin Aoyama
  • 2023: Megan Feragne
  • 2022: Margaret Goddard
  • 2021: Jocelyn Bell and Scarlett Bergam
  • 2020: prabhdeep singh kehal and Anar Parikh
  • 2019: Laura Garbes
  • 2018: Meg Caven

Abelardo Hernández Community Engagement Award

The Community Engagement Award recognizes one graduating senior who has worked with a community partner for more than two years. This student will have built strong relationships with community members and practitioners and have added significant capacity to the partner’s work, with an eye towards sustainability beyond their own role.

In 2021, the Community Engagement Award was renamed to honor former staff member, Abelardo Hernández, who made a significant impact in the Providence community and passed away due to COVID-19. 

Awardees

  • 2024: Jada Wooten '24
  • 2023: Sarah Packer '23
  • 2022: Gabriel Mernoff '22 and Breanna Cadena '22
  • 2021: Naotaro (Nari) Kato '21 and Sarah Koppelman '21
  • 2020: Nathaniel Pettit '20
  • 2019: Fahim Mahmud '19
  • 2018: Diem-Khanh (Nini) Nguyen '18 and Gabriel Zimmerman '18
  • 2017: Brandon Dale '17, Bruna Lee '17, and  Nina Schield '17

Derek Canfield Barker Student Leadership Award

The Student Leadership Award recognizes one graduating senior who has helped the Swearer Center to expand its work, reach more students, and/or improve our efforts to work with a diverse range of students, faculty, and community members.

Awardees

  • 2024: Sofia Funk '24 and Shazain Ahmed Khan '24
  • 2023: Aaron Castillo '23 and Elbie Seibert '23
  • 2022: Ishani Mehta '22, Kimberly Collins '22 and Madison Mandel '22
  • 2021: Morgan Brinker '21, Jenny Lee '21, and Idalmis Lopez '21
  • 2020: Tafari Williams '20
  • 2019: Anna Fireman '19 and Sam Reidt '19
  • 2018: Emerson Wells '18
  • 2017: Olivia Veira '17

Derek Canfield Barker Community-Engaged Athletic Award

The Derek Canfield Barker Community-Engaged Athletic Award recognizes one student who has participated in sports at Brown (varsity or club level) and has demonstrated strong commitment to community impact, especially through engagement in the Providence community. This student will also have demonstrated leadership amongst their peers and have built strong relationships with community members and practitioners. 

Awardees

  • 2024: Leah Carey '25 and Kenyon Graham '25