Jenzabar University

The Jenzabar Foundation has announced the winners of the 2011 Student Leadership Awards, recognizing student campus groups and projects that have made a significant contribution to better the world outside of their institutions of higher education. The Foundation donated a total of $50,000 to support service-based student groups around the country, helping expand the winning groups’ future outreach and beneficiary impact.

The Student Leadership Award recipients have exemplified a commitment to making a difference in the world either through ongoing activities or through the completion of a project during the 2010-2011 academic year. With record breaking registrations and more than 800 individuals and/or student groups signed up for this year’s awards, The Jenzabar Foundation committee selected the honorees based on their impact and mission; involvement both on and off campus; and the potential for other organizations to emulate their model of service.

The Student Leadership Awards had the most registrants ever this year, so choosing the recipients was a difficult task. With several exceptional candidates along with our desire to recognize additional deserving nominations, we developed relationships with the umbrella organizations of several of this year’s outstanding nominees to support more campus chapters than ever before.

The 2011 Student Leadership Award winners and their affiliated institutions are as follows:

• Cooks for a Cause; Robert Morris University
• Engineers Without Borders - USA; nominated chapters were University of Washington Seattle, Johns Hopkins University, Rutgers University, Rowan University, and Princeton University
• GlobeMed; nominated chapters were University of Colorado / Boulder, Columbia University, and Loyola University
• Love and Fidelity Network; nominated chapters were Holy Cross University and Harvard University
• Phillips Brooks House Association at Harvard University; including the student groups Project for Sustainable Development, Leadership Institute at Harvard College Social Outreach Committee, Housing Opportunities Program, Summer Urban Program, Texting Toward Healthier Villages
• Students In Free enterprise (SIFE); Drury University
• weServe and Alternative Breaks program; Drexel University

The Jenzabar Foundation Awards committee felt that the selected winners’ dedication to their community, outstanding leadership, and commitment to their beneficiaries set them apart. We will work with both the umbrella and chapter organizations to distribute Student Leadership Award grants across numerous groups and projects.

Since 1990, Glamour Magazine has saluted inspiring, high-achieving women through its Women of the Year Awards. This annual event has had an astonishing impact on politics and society—sometimes even saving lives.

The Women of the Year award is very close to our hearts. Jenzabar Founder and Foundation Board member Ling Chai was honored as one of Glamour’s Women of the Year in 1990. She has maintained her relationship with Glamour over the years, and we are pleased that the magazine shares our commitment to the humanitarian issues that are so important to The Jenzabar Foundation and Jenzabar, Inc.

Glamour’s Women of the Year Fund has helped support programs to stop child marriage in Yemen through the Girls World Communication Center, provided counseling for former child soldiers in Uganda via Empowering Hands and funded Mukhtar Mai’s shelter for women in Pakistan as well as Somaly Mam’s work on behalf of former sex slaves in Cambodia.

This year, Glamour recognized Dr. Hawa Abdi and her daughters, who run a massive refugee camp in war-torn Somalia. By donating to their cause, we are helping to restore the hospital’s pediatric unit, which was destroyed in May attacks by Islamist militants, provide lifesaving medical and nutritional treatment for women and children, and support literacy and leadership training at the camp’s Women’s Education Center. Glamour is working with the nonprofit Vital Voices to distribute funds to support Dr. Abdi’s crucial work.

The Jenzabar Foundation kicked off this year’s initiative with a major donation.

The Jenzabar Foundation is proud to announce a new initiative that seeks to lead the way in the area of human rights for an underserved and under-represented segment of humanity:

In China, people do not believe that “a girl is as good as a boy”.

The mission of All Girls Allowed is to restore life, value, and dignity to girls and mothers and to reveal the injustices of China’s One-Child Policy.

Since 1978, the implementation of China’s One-Child Policy has led to female gendercide, abandonment of daughters, human trafficking and violations of women’s reproductive rights. Through education, advocacy, strategic partnerships, and legal defense, All Girls Allowed strives to:

• Mobilize the global community to advocate against the cruel methods used to enforce the One-Child Policy;
• Educate families against gender-based pregnancy termination by easing the burden of having a baby girl with monthly stipends and a baby shower gift of clothes and food;
• Provide legal defense and asylum counseling to mothers who are in danger of forced pregnancy termination or involuntary sterilization;
• Support abandoned children, the vast majority of whom are girls, by raising funds for orphanages; and
• Reunite trafficked women and children with their families. 

Please visit the All Gilrs Allowed Web site to learn about many resources for involvement—from videos, articles, and facts, to opportunities for people to volunteer or donate, to social networking and an online petition.