Senior Service Award Recipient Named

UNF SELECTS SENIOR SERVICE AWARD RECIPIENT

JACKSONVILLE . UNF senior Serah Makka has been selected by the University of North Florida Alumni Association as the recipient of the Senior Service Award for the December 2002 graduating class. Makka, a native of Nigeria, will be honored at the 3 p.m. commencement ceremony on Friday, Dec. 13 at the UNF Arena.

The UNF Alumni Association selects a graduating senior each semester for outstanding service to the University or the community through volunteerism.

Makka, who came to UNF in 1999, will be receiving a bachelor’s degree in economics and international studies, with a 3.86 GPA. Since August 2001, she has worked as an author/researcher in the UNF Undergraduate Enrichment Program; as a field researcher in the Center for Student Success and Retention; and most recently, interned at Harvard University in the Center for International Development.

As president of the Golden Key International Honor Society, she has participated in community service projects, such as the Books and Bears drive to benefit children with pediatric AIDS, canned food drives, an International Business Learning Project with area elementary school children, and other projects that benefit Jacksonville’s homeless. She has been an active member of several UNF organizations including the Resident Student Association, the International Student Association, the Undergraduate Enrichment Honor Society, and also volunteers as a Victims Advocate for the UNF Women’s Center. She also served as vice president of the African Students Association. In the Jacksonville community, Makka has volunteered with the Arlington Assemblies of God, the Nigerian Association of Jacksonville and at the Micro Credit Campaign Economic Summit.

Makka says her most rewarding volunteer work has been with children with pediatric AIDS. “We might not be able to protect their bodies from the disease process but we can intervene. As a society, we need to shield their hearts in a scabbard of love, in a sheath of acceptance, in a calabash of enduring hope,” she says.

Members of the media wishing to interview Makka should contact the Office of News and Publications at (904) 620-2140.

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