Spirit of Princeton awards announced

This year's recipients of the Spirit of Princeton Awards are seniors Mike Kimberly, Michael Ritter, Nida Parks, Cameron Atkinson, Kate Redman, Jaquan Levons and junior Corey Sanders.

The prize, which has been given since 1995, recognizes undergraduate students for their contributions to campus life.

Kimberly has been involved with student government throughout his Princeton career. As a freshman, he served as the Class of 2003 treasurer. He then went on to become the treasurer of the USG for two consecutive terms.

"Certainly the largest — and I think what will be the longest lasting — contribution as the treasurer was my petition for increasing the student fee, which gave the USG an extra $75,000 annually," he said.

This let the Undergraduate Film Organization — which was suffering from unreliable funding at the time, according to Kimberly — to be incorporated into the USG.

He also served a two-year term on the Trustee's Alcohol Initiative Grant Review Committee.

"I certainly felt as though because I was on that committee it was part of my responsibility to understand exactly what the problem was and why the committee existed in the first place," he said.

Kimberly was co-chairman on the Campus Culture and Social Climate Subcommittee — part of Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson's Campus Alcohol Initiative. As part of this subcommittee, Kimberly helped put together a report that suggested the eating clubs should start serving soda at their bars.

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Kimberly said Sanders "took the ball and ran with it," as far as the soda initiative went.

Sanders was elected president of the Quadrangle Club earlier this year, and served as one of the club's assistant social chairs last year. The soda initiative was designed for students who might not be interested in drinking beer at the Street.

"I've been working on that with a lot of people — with the USG and with the other clubs and so forth. It's been easy because everyone's pretty willing to work with it. I don't know, I feel somewhat bad that I'm getting the award because everybody's kind of working together on a lot of those things," he said.

Sanders is also a residential advisor in Forbes College. He said his own RA freshman year inspired him to take on the position himself.

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He is now working on environmental policy — particularly recycling — at the Street, and hopes to come up with a proposal regarding this issue soon.

Levons has been the president of IMPACT, a ministry sponsored by the Campus Crusade for Christ, for the past two years. When he first arrived on campus, IMPACT was primarily a dinner and devotional held in Spelman Hall. Levons changed the organization an made it more discussion-based. Now, he said, they don't have dinner except on those rare occasions he orders pizza.

Levons has tried to challenge people's faith. This year the group has studied Martin Luther King, Jr. as a great figure who looked to Christ first in his quest for civil rights.

Ritter has been particularly involved in the arts on campus. He has performed in the University Chapel Choir since his freshman year, and has also participated in many theater productions.

Ritter is a board member of and volunteer for ARTS ALIVE!, as well as a member of the Honor Committee.

"I like to stay involved in a variety of things. I enjoy my class work, but also time out of class. I've met so many interesting people doing plays and volunteering with ARTS ALIVE!," he said.

Parks helped found the Princeton chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign in the spring of sophomore year. She is also one of the founders of the NEXT — Needle Exchange Today — campaign.

"A lot of it was just kind of getting people interested and aware that there was a group on campus," Parks said about the NEXT campaigning.

She is also involved in Sustained Dialogue, and thinks her various activities relate to and play off one another in different ways.

Atkinson is a member of the football team and captain of the track and field team. He has won a variety of awards for his participation in both sports, including the 1999 Donald B. Lourie trophy as the football team's top freshman offensive player, the 2002 John P. Poe-Richard W. Kazmeier Trophy as the football team's most valuable player, and the 2000 Babb Memorial Trophy as the track and field team's top freshman.

Atkinson is also a peer mentor for the Princeton Achievement Alliance and for minority students.

Redman has worked with the Student Volunteer Council since her freshman year. She has been a Community Action leader since coming to Princeton, and served as the CA Coordinator her sophomore year. Many regard her as the leader in transforming the Urban Action program into the current Community Action program by having students sleep over where they were helping during the day.