Past Winners

2005–2006 Sally Montgomery Prize Awarded to Air Quality Monitoring Project
By Lily Shapiro ‘06

The Community-Based Learning Program annually recognizes outstanding commitment to partnerships between the College and community by honoring a collaborative project with the Sally Montgomery Award. The prize goes to the project that best exemplifies the mutually beneficial relationship between student(s) and community organizations. This partnership affords student(s) an enhanced academic experience, resulting in a tangible benefit to the community.

The 2005-2006 winners were chosen by a panel of judges that included Sally Montgomery, Dean and Professor Emeritus; Professor Harold Garrett-Goodyear, Chair of Critical Social Thought; and Shaili Ghimire '08, 2004-2005 Sally Montgomery award recipient. On May 8, 2006 in the Willits-Hallowell Center, three finalists presented their projects to an audience of community partners, faculty, staff, and students.

After a welcome by CBL Coordinator Preston Smith and opening remarks by Sally Montgomery, finalist April Empleo Frazier ‘08 presented her project Being the Teacher and the Learner in the Holyoke Community. Frazier partnered with the River Valley Academy in Holyoke, MA as part of her work for Professor Becky Packard’s PSYCH 233: Educational Psychology course. Yedalis Ruiz ‘08 FP followed with a presentation about her participation with the Kimbombo Theater Group, also located in Holyoke at the Community Education Project (CEP).  Ruiz’ community work stemmed from the Five College Course SPAN 345: Contemporary Latin Theatre taught jointly by Professor Priscilla Page (University of Massachusetts at Amherst) and Professor Dorothy Mosby (Mount Holyoke College). 

The third finalist, and winner of the 2006 Sally Montgomery Award, was a group project from Professor Giovanna DiChiro’s ENVST 321: Urban Ecology course. Emily Morgan ‘06, Tracy Zhu ‘08, Kristine Swann ‘07, Aileen Suzara ’06 took their direction from Holyoke partner Nuestras Raíces to complete their project The Right to Breathe: Air Quality Monitoring in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The team created a manual and a short video with accessible information about testing air quality. Their comprehensive work convinced the award committee that their research would prove “most useful to Nuestras Raíces and Holyoke residents, not only in the short term, but as a launching point for further grassroots community action.”