Berkey Receives Statewide Service Award
Michigan Campus Compact Honors Albion Sociology Professor
Posted Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Reported by Jake Weber

ALBION, Mich. – The latest in an Albion streak of award winners, Albion College sociology professor Len Berkey was recently announced as Michigan Campus Compact’s (MCC) Faculty/Staff Community Service-Learning Award winner. This prestigious annual award is the highest MCC bestows on faculty and staff in the state of Michigan.

According to MCC, the Faculty/Staff Community Service Learning Award recognizes the person on a campus who has made the most outstanding contributions to community service-learning, involving students through modeling, instruction, and/or special projects.

Berkey was chosen by peers in part for his efforts on behalf of “Jessie’s Gift,” a mentoring and tutoring program named in honor of Jessie Longhurst, an Albion College student who passed away in 2005. “Jessie’s Gift” involves fifteen Albion College students paired with 35 Albion fifth graders in a mentoring and tutoring program. The fifth graders are chosen by school counselors to participate in the program, and “Jessie’s Gift” represents a valuable resource for students in need of special attention.

“Len Berkey has had a decades-long commitment to helping our students become engaged citizens. In addition to his current work of developing and supporting student mentors, he has also helped our public schools to address the problem of bullying and other forms of aggression among children,” said Albion College president Peter T. Mitchell. “Our students are very fond of Dr. Berkey because he takes them seriously, empowers them to grow intellectually, and equips them to better understand how to serve the communities in which they reside, now and in the future.”

Berkey is the fourth Albion College professor to win the Faculty/Staff Service Learning Award in the past three years. Art history professor Leslie Cavell and biology professor Luti Erbeznik shared the award in 2004, and art professor Lynne Chytilo received the award in 2005.

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