Alex Harvey
Equinox Staff
The recipients of the annual President’s Campus Compact Awards have been chosen. Members of the Keene State College faculty, student body and the Keene community will be honored with the President’s Good Steward Award, the President’s Student Leadership Award, and the President’s Community Partner Award.
The President’s Good Steward Award is given to faculty members who have served the greater community with their professional expertise and significantly contributed to public service on campus. The 2019 co-recipients of this award are Professor Loren Launen and Brian Moore.
The President’s Student Leadership Award is given to a student at Keene State College who has performed outstanding community service, service learning and/or civic engagement. The 2019 recipient for this award is KSC junior MacKenzie Kittery.
The President’s Community Partner Award is given to a member of a non-profit organization that has provided meaningful and measurable improvements to the quality of life in the community, and developed sustained and reciprocal partnerships with the college. Historical Society of Cheshire County Director of Education Jenna Carroll, is the 2019 recipient of this award.
Moore is an Analytical Instrumentation Engineer at Keene State College. Originally from California, he graduated from the University of California at Bakersfield before he came to the east coast to raise his children with his wife. He came to KSC because he was attracted to the active learning environment on campus. He and Launen are being honored with the President’s Good Steward Award for their efforts to encourage children to pursue STEM fields.
“Professor Launen and I decided to do a STEM fair, since there’s not a lot of science fair activity in this region. So we decided to create a STEM fair to encourage kids to go into STEM, and eventually get high school students from the region to the state science fair,” Moore said.
Launen was unavailable for interview.
Kittery is a junior at KSC double majoring in Nutrition and Pre-Med, and is planning to attend medical school after graduating. She is originally from Derry, New Hampshire. Kittery considered attending the University of Alabama but chose to come to KSC because she was attracted to the sense of community on campus. Kittery is highly involved on campus. She is in the Pre-Med Club, the Student Nutrition Club, the Nursing Society, and she works for Aspire as a head tutor, tutoring anatomy and physiology. She also works at the Child Development Center on campus, preparing menus and snacks in the kitchen.
“I am one of the founders of the Hungry Owl, Keene State College’s first food pantry on campus,” Kittery said.
She opened the Hungry Owl last year to keep students, professors and staff from going hungry. In addition to her work on campus, Kittery enjoys doing outreach work with homeless people in her hometown of Derry, New Hampshire, and in Boston.
“Every year I go down for four days to Boston Common, that’s where the largest homeless population in Boston is. We go around the streets giving bagged food out, we make sure they have blankets, and at night we all sleep in Boston and go out at the wee hours of the morning and make sure people are clothed properly and have food for the night,” Kittery said.
In the mornings, Kittery and the others that she works with serve hot meals to the homeless population. Kittery thanked the students who help her run The Hungry Owl, Jenna Berge and Max Foisel.
Carroll has worked as the Director of Education at the Historical Society of Cheshire County for the last five years. At the time, the organization was transforming into a cultural heritage center, which meant that there would be more outreach work with the community, which attracted Carroll to the job. “It’s been the best way to meet people in the community of every age group” she said. Carroll graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in History and Women’s Studies, and holds a Masters degree from the University of Illinois in History and Museum Administration. The Historical Society of Cheshire County offers internships throughout the year to KSC students.
The awards ceremony is being held at the Manchester Country Club at noon on April 9.
Alex Harvey can be contacted at
aharvey@kscequinox.com
