06-30-06

Media Release

OSU Student Earns Leadership Award

CORVALLIS, Ore. – An Oregon State University senior from Medford has earned the first Faith Gabelnick Student Leadership Award from the Oregon Campus Compact.

Audra Saunders, a human development and family sciences major in OSU's College of Health and Human Sciences, was recognized for dedication to the spirit of community service.

Saunders has been a leader in OSU's Student Committee on Hunger and Poverty and has worked with other OSU students to create a human services resource center where students could connect with social service agencies for help on subjects ranging from child care to free and low-cost health care.

"I was totally shocked that I received this award," said Saunders, a 2001 North Medford High School graduate. Many students across the country scrape by with inadequate food and housing, Saunders said, often because they don't know where to turn for help.

"What we want to do is make sure students can connect to human services resources that are out there," she said.

Saunders is considering a career in community service programs, working on problems of hunger and homeless on the local, regional and national levels.

The Faith Gabelnick Student Leadership Award is in memory of Gabelnick, president of Pacific University from 1995-2003. She died in June 2004 after a six-month battle with cancer.

The Oregon Campus Compact is part of a national coalition of more than 950 college and university presidents committed to the civic purposes of higher education. Gabelnick was a founding member of the compact and served as chair for five years.