Middlebury Honors Student Public Service Leadership

Middlebury College recognized students, alumni, educators, and community partnerships at the 31st annual Patrick J. Durkin, Class of 1979, Public Service Leadership Awards ceremony hosted by the Center for Community Engagement (CCE). The April 30 reception recognized individuals and organizations for their commitment to public service.

Provost Michelle McCauley shared remarks from President Laurie Patton, who was unable to attend this year. Patton emphasized the connections between Middlebury College and the surrounding community since Middlebury’s founding, saying, “This evening is one of Middlebury’s most significant traditions as we honor our students’ work in a community that we call home. Since the College’s founding in 1800, the town of Middlebury and Middlebury College have shared more than a name; our way of life has been intertwined since the beginning, and our special relationship has been a constant for more than two centuries.”

Patton’s remarks spoke to the importance of having spaces at Middlebury for students to practice social change, engage in dialogue on challenging issues, and find belonging with those who are different from them. “This is particularly important now, when the political atmosphere sometimes feels dire and the discourse can be divisive. I’ve been heartened to see our students, faculty, and staff working together across divides even as we face these challenging circumstances.”

Patton closed with some words from Patrick J. Durkin ’79, for whom the awards are named. “It is from unaccountable acts of kindness, hard work, and at times courage, that sets in motion waves of positive action that together shape the character of individuals, a college, a community, a nation, and the world.”

The keynote speaker for the evening was Tom Morgan, community minister of the Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society and former director of the Charter House Coalition in Middlebury. 

“The accomplishments of this group of honorees are extraordinary,” said Morgan. “You may have noticed that I have called them ‘honorees’ or ‘recipients.’ That is because today, we honor people who have chosen to live a purpose that transcends their own self-interest, and it is our community and our world that are the winners.”

The following students, alumni, educators, and community partners were award winners recognized at the 2024 Patrick J. Durkin, Class of 1979, Public Service Leadership Awards. The first four awards are named in honor of individuals with special relationships to Middlebury College, many of whom were in attendance over Zoom this year.

The Bonnie McCardell Public Service Award is awarded to a student who exemplifies outreach in youth and family services, literacy, and/or the special needs of middle and early high schoolers. This award was presented to Elio Farley ’24.5, a 2021 summer intern with the Teen Center through the Privilege & Poverty Academic Cluster. Since that summer, Farley has remained connected with the Teen Center to develop programming and curricula around healthy relationships and sexuality, building an annual Middlebury Pride celebration, and helping guide the operations of the organization.

The John M. McCardell Jr. Public Service Leadership Award—which recognizes a student who best exemplifies efforts that bring Middlebury, both the College and the town, closer together for public benefit—was presented to Freddi Mitchell ’24.5 and Ellie Cady ’25. Mitchell and Cady were summer 2023 Privilege & Poverty Academic Cluster interns, both working to address the impacts of the housing crisis in Addison County. Cady worked with the Charter House Coalition in its low-barrier emergency shelter, supporting members of our community who are unhoused. Mitchell joined Addison Housing Works, helping build and sustain long-term housing and create a housing resource guide for Addison County.

The Dana Morosini Reeve ’84, P’14 Endowed Memorial Public Service Award was presented to Mia Kojima ’24 for her commitment to service translation at Middlebury and in collaboration with others. Kojima joined the CCE’s Service Translation team in 2022, working with students from Middlebury and International Christian University in Japan to translate oral histories of those who were among the 120,000 Japanese Americans forced into internment camps during WWII.

The Tiffany Nourse Sargent ’79 Engaged Partnership Award honors an educational partnership between Middlebury College and a community organization to address community needs. This year, the award recognized two partnerships, the New Community Project and Ilsley Public Library. Pete Antos-Ketcham, coordinator of the New Community Project’s Sustainable Living Center in Starksboro, Vermont, received the award on behalf of the organization, which aims to address globalization and overconsumption impacting local communities. Ilsley Library director Dana Hart, adult services librarian Renee Ursitti, and youth services librarian Tricia Allen received the award on behalf of the library.

The Center for Community Engagement awarded six general Patrick J. Durkin, Class of 1979, Public Service Leadership Awards.

Sadie Sadler ’26 was recognized for her commitment to youth programs, in which she has been involved since her first semester, including Page One Literacy Project and Sibling to Sibling, which holds monthly programming for middle schoolers. Sadler is now president of both organizations.

Aly Fedde ’24 was recognized for her role in rebuilding the Yellow House Community Club, a student-led community engagement organization that had fallen inactive during COVID. The Yellow House Community Club works directly with the Yellow House Community, an interdependent living community for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Fedde became president in fall 2023, recruiting new members and leaders, planning monthly group events on campus, developing one-on-one sessions between students and friends, and collaborating with Special Olympics to build sustainable partnerships with athletic teams.

Keegan Gilsenan ’25 received the award for his leadership with the Charter House Coalition student organization, which works with the Charter House Coalition—a nonprofit that provides shelter, nutritious meals, and social service support for individuals who are unhoused. 

Nathaly Martinez ’24 received an award for her leadership with Middlebury Alternative Break programs and sustained commitment to migrant communities. She led a group of 11 fellow students on an alternative break trip to New York City to work on immigration justice and, as co-president of Middlebury Alternative Breaks, helped organize six trips with over 70 participants. She also worked on the Hostile Terrain 94 art installation project at Middlebury, helping raise awareness of dangerous immigration policies through the arts.

Mack Briglin ’26.5 was recognized for his commitment in multiple initiatives on campus, including MiddVotes, a nonpartisan student-led organization that mobilizes students to actively participate in our democracy, and MiddVolunteers, a student-led organization that organizes monthly volunteering opportunities with local nonprofits. 

Hinda Ibraahim ’25 received an award for her role with Middlebury DREAM, a chapter of the DREAM Program, which aims to close the opportunity gap for children growing up in low-income housing communities through a mix of one-on-one and group mentoring activities as well as adventure programming. Ibraahim has served as the co-president of DREAM for two years and has also been an active member of Middlebury Civics in Action, which promotes civic engagement and local advocacy.

The CCE awarded two nonstudent Patrick J. Durkin, Class of 1979, Public Service Leadership Awards: an alumni award and an educator award.

The Patrick J. Durkin, Class of 1979, Public Service Alumni Leadership Award was presented to Kenzo Okazaki ’21, who founded the Service Translation program at the CCE in fall 2020. Okazaki coordinated collaborations between organizations telling the history of Japanese-American internment with a volunteer translation team made up of students from Middlbury and International Christian University in Japan.

The Patrick J. Durkin, Class of 1979, Public Service Leadership Award for Community Engaged Teaching and Scholarship was presented to Pam Berenbaum, professor of the practice of global health and director of Middlebury’s Global Health Program. Berenbaum has been a professor of the practice at Middlebury since 2010, previously having worked for 10 years with the Vermont Department of Health. She teaches classes on global health, public health policy, social change, and disaster public health. Her community collaborations include completing the Local Determinants of Health survey for Addison County in 2015, developing profiles of innovations in rural health delivery for Porter Medical Center, and evaluating the University of Vermont Health Network’s medical and legal partnership with Vermont Legal Aid.

About the Patrick J. Durkin Awards

Patrick J. Durkin was a member of the Class of 1979 and founder of the Public Service Leadership Awards. Durkin, who died by suicide in the summer of 2020, understood the importance of public service and helped Middlebury build collaborative relationships with local, national, and international communities. He helped Middlebury celebrate service and civic leadership and aimed to provide the same recognition for students dedicated to public service as those who achieve excellence in academics, athletics, or the performing arts. In Durkin’s honor, the awards were officially renamed the Patrick J. Durkin, Class of 1979, Public Service Leadership Awards in 2021.

With support from the Durkin Fund, the CCE will make $500 donations on behalf of each award winner to a nonprofit organization of their choice. The Durkin Fund supports these awards and other CCE programs that foster student public service leadership. As of this year, the CCE will have recognized a total of 262 students through these awards and distributed $85,500 to nonprofit organizations designated by the student award recipients.

If you or someone you know is experiencing mental illness, please seek support from Middlebury Counseling and MiddTelehealth, or the National Suicide Lifeline and the Crisis Text Line.