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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Annual Community Service Awards honors members of campus community

The Community Service Resource Center (CSRC) is currently organizing the 2013 Community Service Awards.

The annual ceremony, which takes place in the spring, aims to recognize community members who exhibit a dedication to helping others.

“I just think it’s something that people don’t recognize, and these people do incredible things all the time, not looking for any recognition,” said Kim McMullen, a student advisor at the CSRC and a second-year international relations major.

Nominations take place in February. Qualifying nominees have an affiliation with UC Davis, as either a student or staff or faculty member, and are selected by their peers or via self-nomination.

Last year, 1,137 people were nominated, with 240 of them receiving an award.

Winners are placed into different categories of recognition based on the type of community service and the hours served: Outstanding, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Honorable Mention.

“I know that I cannot help everybody, but just to think that every day I change people’s lives helps, even if we don’t have so much to give, a little bit helps,” said Zita Demaree, one of last year’s Outstanding winners.

Demaree is co-founder of AJD Angels of Hope and works in the Budget and Finance office in the Student Housing building.

AJD Angels of Hope is a Filipino American charity that donates food, clothing, books and toys to needy children locally and internationally. Demaree was nominated by one of her students for the award.

“I think this is very helpful to students in the long run, because you can touch people’s lives. You cannot learn it in the classroom,” Demaree said.

Jessica Jaswal, a UC Davis alumna who majored in biopsychology, is another 2012 Outstanding winner. She founded the UC Davis Global Brigades, which is aimed at improving the quality of life for people across the world with the help of students and community members through volunteer work.

She also helped create the UC Haiti Initiative to help rebuild Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

Her peers and faculty members nominated her for the award.

“Every person can make a positive difference in the world — they just have to take the first step,” Jaswal said in an email interview. “The awards recognize the hard work and celebrate the collective achievements of students, faculty and volunteers that have helped create a better world.”

Nomination dates for the Community Service Awards will be announced within the next two weeks on iccweb.ucdavis.edu/cs.

Further information on CSRC events can be found on the CSRC Facebook and Twitter pages.

SASHA COTTERELL can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

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