Eight students win Spirit of Princeton prize

Sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, the Spirit of Princeton Award, established in 1995, is given each year to students showing a strong commitment to the undergraduate experience through their involvement in student organizations, athletics, community service, religious life, residential life and the arts.

Alicea, a politics major from Plaistow, N.H., called the award a “tremendous honor.”

The publisher of numerous campus publications during his time at Princeton — including American Foreign Policy, The Princeton Tory and Cornerstone — Alicea is also an undergraduate fellow with the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, the administrative chairman of the Anscombe Society and a student representative on the Committee on Discipline. As a freshman, he invited former CIA director James Woolsey to speak to American Foreign Policy, and he helped to bring Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to campus to lecture and receive the James Madison Award for Distinguished Public Service through the Whig-Cliosophic Society in March 2008.

“Princeton’s student organizations and opportunities for community service are incredibly enriching and fulfilling experiences,” Alicea said in an e-mail. “That’s true not just in terms of the work that you do as part of these organizations … but also the people you meet and work with,” he added.

Bello, a religion major from McLean, Va., has pursued her theatrical passions during her time at Princeton. In addition to serving as general manager of Theatre Intime and company manager for the Princeton Summer Theater, Bello directed “Othello” this February for her senior thesis production in the Program in Theater and Dance. She has also been involved with several other theatrical groups — including the Princeton Shakespeare Company and Triangle Club — and is the founder of the Theatre Intime Kids Initiative, which produces children’s theater for community members.

Bello has also found time for activities outside of theater, volunteering through the Cotsen Children’s Library for FoodTASK and the Tiger Tales program. She also played fullback on the women’s rugby team and the under-19 national rugby team until she sustained a serious neck injury in her sophomore year.

Following graduation, Bello plans to work as a secondary English teacher in Baltimore with Teach For America.

The athletic field has been the forum for many of Berry’s exploits. An economics major, the Bel Air, Md., native played wide receiver on the football team for four years and served as a tri-captain. Berry was a recipient of the Hank Towns Award this year for his contributions to the football program, which include his collaboration with the athletics department to improve recruiting of black student athletes.

Berry is also a member of the Leadership and Mentoring Program, treasurer of Impact Christian Fellowship and a University Big Sibling.

“There are a lot of other individuals who have made very positive contributions to campus and have gone unrecognized,” Berry said in an e-mail. “For that reason, this award is a blessing, an honor and extremely humbling.”

Chism also pointed to other individuals’ impacts on her life as an integral part of her extracurricular endeavors. “You definitely get to meet a lot of different people with common interests. You get to learn more about the people who get to learn more about you as you work on a common cause,” she said, adding that she was “surprised” by but “very thankful” for the award.

A politics major from Lancaster, Calif., Chism serves as a U-Councilor, vice president of the Black Student Union and co-president of the Princeton Association of Black Women.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

She also volunteers with the Leadership and Mentoring Program and dances with the Raks Odalisque belly-dancing group while serving as a building supervisor at the Frist Campus Center and a CPR instructor for Outdoor Action.

Henritze, also a politics major, serves as chair of the Honor Committee and has earned All-Ivy awards as captain of the women’s volleyball team. She served as president of the Varsity Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and undergraduate representative on the NCAA Certification Committee.

The Atlanta native has volunteered as a coach for a middle school boys’ basketball team while being involved on campus as an officer of Tiger Inn, chair and a member of the President’s Advisory Committee on Architecture.

Jawaid, who is also an architecture committee member, is an architecture major from Karachi, Pakistan. He said in an e-mail that he “could never have imagined winning this award” upon arriving on campus as a freshman two-and-a-half years ago. The organizer of the student-led “Save Forbes” initiative, which advocated for a shuttle to the residential college, Jawaid has served as a member of the Forbes College Council, as an RCA and as the advocacy and reflection board member of the Student Volunteers Council. He is also an Orange Key tour guide, a webmaster for the Pride Alliance and an LGBT peer educator.

Jawaid also has a keen interest in art, using funds from the Martin A. Dale ’53 Summer Fellowship to create a comparative painting and photography portfolio from his travels to Delhi, India, and Paris that supplemented his creative experience as a member of the Student Design Agency and a cartoonist for The Daily Princetonian.

In his hometown of Karachi, he led an art activity for children living near a landfill through emPOWER, an initiative to get a renewable power station for the landfill.

Lalwani, a politics major from Secaucus, N.J., has been publisher of American Foreign Policy and a member of the University’s Priorities Committee while also serving as a board member for the South Asian Students Association and a dancer for Indian dance group Naacho.

Lalwani has also served as co-president of the Princeton Hindu Satsangam and organized the University’s Hinduism Week in 2007, in addition to serving as a co-convener of the Religious Life Council. Lalwani also worked with the Office of Religious Life to create the position of Coordinator of Hindu Life, helped organize a Diwali event in the University chapel as well as the “Performing the Sacred” multi-faith event last fall.

“At Princeton, I really have been fortunate and frankly blessed to have witnessed a lot of really constructive changes that I’ve been lucky to be a part of, in particular Hindu life,” Lalwani said, adding that he feels “privileged to have been involved in so much.”

Lalwani also has been an RCA in Whitman College for two years and is a candidate for certificates in political economy, East Asian studies and South Asian studies.

Miller, a comparative literature major from Tucson, Ariz., has served as co-president of the Pride Alliance and as an LGBT Peer Educator, organizing the “Queering the Color Line” dinner discussion series.

As an undergraduate intern at the LGBT Center, she has initiated peer education outreach panels with several organizations, such as the Black Student Union and the Princeton Caribbean Connection.

Another recipient of the Dale fellowship as well as an Outdoor Action leader trainer and head fellow at the Writing Center, Miller was also an officer of the Black Student Union and danced in the Black Arts Company during her freshman year.

“I’ve been given a lot of really incredible opportunities that I have loved taking advantage of,” Miller said, adding that one of the most enjoyable parts of her Princeton experience has been that she has “been able to do things that have made a difference here.”