The annual awards recognize students across the state for devoting their time and talents to building stronger, safer and connected communities. Awards are given in three categories: Heart and Soul, Commitment to Service and Outstanding Community Impact.
Phillip Kucab, a second-year medical student at Wayne State, is one of seven students to receive the Outstanding Community Impact Award, the highest award given to undergraduate and graduate students.
Kucab's work in developing World AIDS Day Detroit, held Dec. 1, 2011, earned him the honor. He was largely responsible for the regional reawakening of the threat that AIDS still poses, and for bringing perhaps the nation's most famous face of the fight against AIDS - Jeanne White-Ginder, mother of Ryan White - to Detroit for the event.
Outstanding Community Impact Award winners are selected by an outside review panel and receive $200 to donate to the service organization of their choice. Kucab will donate his prize to the Hemophiliac Foundation of Michigan, which was instrumental in making World AIDS Day Detroit successful.
A total of 17 WSU students will receive the Heart and Soul Award. Wayne State student Charlie Cavell, founder of Pay-It-Forward, which places unemployed Detroiters in internships with area nonprofits, received one of 33 Commitment to Service awards.
"We are proud of our students who are engaged and passionate about making a difference," says David Strauss, WSU's dean of students. "Our 375 student organizations reflect the dedication and commitment of our student leaders."
Michigan Campus Compact is a coalition of college and university presidents committed to fulfilling the public purposes of higher education, including the development of personal and social responsibility as integral to education. Its purpose is to build and sustain a network of colleges and universities to strengthen student engagement through sharing and expanding knowledge and resources, fostering community partnerships and celebrating service leaders.
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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution offering more than 400 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 32,000 students.