In honor of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s recognition that local engagement is essential to the struggle for equality, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Symposium on Social Change Executive Planning Committee of the University of Pennsylvania announces the 2018 Community Involvement Recognition Awardees. The awards honor members of the Philadelphia community whose active service to others best exemplifies the ideals Dr. King espoused.

The 2018 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Involvement Recognition Awardees were honored at the annual MLK Interfaith Program and Awards Commemoration last month. They are as follows:

• Victoria Brown—W’19, founded the Diversity Committee of the UA to improve the cultural sensitivity of the NEC; she served as chairwoman for the 2017 Black Ivy League Business Conference (Student Award).
• Craig Carnaroli, W’85—Penn’s EVP, who has taken the lead in the integration of civic and community engagement and formed a partnership the Office of the EVP and the Netter Center to drive social engagement (Staff Award).
• Della Clark—president of the Enterprise Center since 1992, she raised money to renovate their West Philadelphia building where minority and women-owned businesses have started, advancing economic social justice in the community (Community Award).
• In the spring of 2017, five middle school students at the Jubilee School in Southwest Philadelphia became social justice advocates concerned about the impact of violence: Ella Adams, Nigel Carter, Ishtar El, Hannah Roemer-Block and David Bannister. They initiated a campaign against police brutality called “Songs of the Children  Anti-Violence Club” using poetry as the language of resistance. They organized marches and visited the site of the 1985 police bombing of MOVE on Osage Avenue and raised funds for a state historical marker there (Community Award).
• Wesley Proctor—CEO and founder of Wesley Proctor Ministries, has established annual book awards helping college-bound students in Philadelphia and created the “Man Up Conference” to help young men to be empowered, enriched and educated (Community Education Award in honor of Dr. Judith Rodin).