January 15, 2013
Prospect Sierra, an independent K-8 school in the Bay Area, recently hosted the 2013 Prospect Sierra Alumni Action Awards (PSAAA), an event inspired in part by the Goldman Prize.
In 2008, Prospect Sierra won an award from West Contra County Integrated Waste Management for their efforts to green up their campuses. The students chose to use the prize money to start an award of their own. The PSAAAs honor former Prospect Sierra students that have gone out of their way to make the world a better place.
A group of students from Prospect Sierra attend the Goldman Prize award ceremony in San Francisco every year. The students were inspired by the format of the Prize and have implemented a similar format for their own award ceremony. Each awardee is presented with a short video about their work and then delivers brief remarks to the audience. A convivial reception follows the ceremony.
The 2013 winners are Miles Makdisi (Class of ’01) and Elinor Lewis and Aden Copeland (Class of ’11). Finalists Aaron Mandel (Class of ’96), Perry Nalle (Class of ’12) and Kelly Richardson (Class of ’94) were also recognized.
Miles Makdisi was awarded the PSAA for his work teaching sports to children in Colombia with his organization Sports for Development. His program helps kids build confidence and resist violence. To learn more about Makdisi’s work, click here.
Elinor Lewis and Aden Copeland were recognized for creating and organizing Arts Benefitting Children (ABC), an afterschool program that utilizes high school volunteers to teach dance and drama lessons to underprivileged youth. For more on Lewis and Copeland’s work, click here.
Goldman Prize staff members Lani Alo and Liz Means had the pleasure of attending this year’s PSAAAs. Both Alo and Means were inspired by the awardees and impressed with the events organization. It is evident that the students at Prospect Sierra put in a lot of hard work to make the ceremony uplifting and memorable.
Congratulations to all the PSAAA finalists and awardees, and a big round of applause to the student council, staff and faculty of Prospect Sierra!
