Students win new Princeton Prize

The University recently recognized three high school students for their dedication to improving race relations within their communties.

Jacqueline Akyea and Zainep Mahmoud, both of Washington, D.C., and Shan Shan Nie, of Boston, were the first recipients of the Princeton Prize in Race Relations, an alumni-initiated honor.

The award began as an idea of Henry Von Kohorn '66 while he was serving as the chair of the National Committee on Schools.

"I saw the number of the kids doing good work, and I thought it would be nice to find a way to recognize their accomplishments," Von Kohorn said.

With overwhelming alumni and administrative support, he formed the Princeton Prize Committee and organized the award process. The program demonstrates Princeton's adherence to its motto, "In the Nation's Service," he said.

President Tilghman expressed her gratitude to Von Kohorn for proposing the idea and "mobilizing so many enthusiastic Princeton alumni to participate."

"Having just this morning signed the certificates that will go to the winners, I feel great pride that the name of Princeton is now associated with the students whose commitment to improving race relations is being recognized," Tilghman said in a statement.

In addition to alumni, the Princeton Prize Committee included two undergraduates, Patrick Ledbetter '06 and Mariamawit Tameret '05. They read through applications and brought a student perspective to the decision-making process.

"We were included to tie [the process] back to the undergraduates," Ledbetter said.

Tameret added that it was interesting to see the methodology of how students are selected for awards.

High school students from the Washington, D.C. and Boston areas were eligible to receive the award this year. Local alumni committees read through applications and submitted their decisions to the Princeton Prize Committee for approval.

In total, 55 students applied for the award. Von Kohorn was especially impressed with the "diversity of the applicant pool."

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"It didn't look like the old Princeton," he said. "The group was representative of the Princeton of today."

Next year, the program will be expanded to include the Atlanta, Houston and St. Louis regions.

The ultimate goal of the committee, however, is to create a national award available to all students. This program would include a symposium on race relations held at Princeton that all winners would be invited to attend.

There will be ceremonies on May 12 in Washington, D.C., and May 19 in Boston to honor the prize recipients.

Congressman John Lewis, a 1987 Princeton honorary degree recipient and national civil rights leader, Sen. Paul Sarbanes '54 and University trustee and U.S. District Court Judge Henry Kennedy '70 are all scheduled to attend the Washington, D.C. event.