The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges (OFIC) has announced that Denison student Rachel Auerbach, a junior from Mt. Horeb, Wisc., has been selected to receive the OFIC 2015 Service-Learning Leadership Award. Auerbach will be honored in a ceremony on Thursday, April 16, in Columbus, Ohio.
“Rachel was selected for this prestigious award because of the outstanding leadership and service she exhibited, not only on her campus, but throughout her community and beyond,” said Gordon Brollier, president of OFIC.
Auerbach, who is majoring in both environmental studies and women’s studies, has brought her enthusiasm for service to issues including homelessness and hunger and sexual assault. She has been especially effective in her work with the Food Recovery Network, a national network, which Denison joined as the first Ohio school last year.
“One of Rachel’s most prominent impacts has been with Denison’s Food Recovery effort,” said Denison University President Adam Weinberg, “The initiative involves engaging student volunteers to collect prepared, unserved food and deliver it to agencies serving local residents in need. Under Rachel’s dedicated leadership, the program has grown from a schedule of two monthly food pickups from one dining hall, to fourteen pickups, seven days a week, from two dining halls. Last semester alone, over 4,000 pounds of food, previously destined for the compost heap, were recovered by Denison student volunteers.”
And Auerbach continued serving even during her time abroad. “The summer before my junior year, I studied abroad in Botswana for two months on a CIEE Community Public Health program,” said Auerbach, “In addition to taking classes about public health issues, I worked in five clinics in Gaborone and three clinics in the rural village Kanye. I also volunteered at Mokolodi Nature Reserve and Batlang Support Group, among other places.”
These experiences have both demonstrated Auerbach’s dedication to authentic civic engagement and have contributed to her development into such an effective, strong leader. In her own words, “Leadership, to me, is the ability to work with a group of people towards a common goal, without asserting too much of your own individual opinions. Leadership is being able to overcome differences and work together.”
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