Three Yale Students Honored for Public Service with the Thompson Prize

Three members of the Yale College Class of 2001 who have been active in the Yale and New Haven communities were awarded the Roosevelt L. Thompson Prize during Senior Class Day ceremonies.

Three members of the Yale College Class of 2001 who have been active in the Yale and New Haven communities were awarded the Roosevelt L. Thompson Prize during Senior Class Day ceremonies.

Steven B. Smith, chair of the Council of Masters Committee on Awards, master of Branford College and professor of political science, presented the awards to Eyi Tuakli-Wosornu, Michael Clifford Motto and Anika Singh.

The Thompson Prize is awarded to members of the senior class for commitment to and capacity for public service. The recipients are recognized for outstanding dedication to public service - service to “the team, the college, the community,” as Thompson expressed it himself. Like Thompson, the students should exemplify great human warmth, commitment to fairness, compassion for all people and the promise of moral leadership in the public sphere.

Citations for this year’s winners follow.

Eyi Tuakli-Wosornu of Timothy Dwight College: “You have been notable for your commitment to African-American issues and the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale. You have served as events coordinator of the center and editor-in-chief of the center’s newsletter; you were the founder of ‘Vision of Virtue,’ a Christian mentoring group that pairs black women from Yale with high school children from the community; and also founder of ‘10,000 Tongues,’ an inter-Ivy gospel festival; and a cofounder of Kwonjo, a student African dance troupe. You have run and participated in workshops in New Haven public schools building reading and writing skills. You were elected to Phi Beta Kappa in the autumn of your senior year and graduate tomorrow with a B.A. in American studies.”
(Tuakli-Wosornu was also awarded the James Andrew Haas Prize, given to the senior “whose breadth of intellectual achievement, strength of character and fundamental humanity shall be adjudged by the faculty to have provided leadership for his or her fellow students, inspiring in them a love of learning and a concern for others.”)

Michael Clifford Motto of Silliman College: “You have served as a tutor in New Haven public schools under the aegis of the TIES program, have volunteered at the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen and have worked to refurbish the New Haven Battered Women’s Shelter. In addition, you have served as a student representative of the Dean’s Committee for Teaching in the Residential Colleges and have participated in the Yale chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Yale Model Congress. You have also been the head freshman counselor at Silliman this year and the recipient of several grants, which have been used to further your interest in the themes of social marginalization and integration. Tomorrow you graduate with a double major in American studies and sociology.”

Anika Singh of Branford College: “You have been a staple of the Dwight Hall Center for Public Service. Last year you were awarded the Elm-Ivy Award for service and advocacy that will make a lasting change for New Haven and Yale. You have worked for the New Haven Housing Authority and have been a board member of the Homeless Advisory Commission, as well as working for two years at the Hill Development Corporation counseling potential home owners in the Hill area of New Haven. You have produced two major plays on campus and have donated the proceeds to a women’s shelter. Tomorrow you graduate with a degree in ethics, politics and economics.”

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