Announcing the Seventh Annual Harris Wofford Awards

The National Youth Leadership Council and State Farm Foundation announce the winners of the Seventh Annual Harris Wofford Awards.

Special Recognition Winner: PeaceJam Foundation

PeaceJam Foundation is an international a service-learning-based, K-12 program headquartered in Denver. Founded in 1996 with the support of 12 Nobel Peace Laureates, PeaceJam's goal is to create a new generation of young leaders committed to positive change in themselves, their communities, and in the world. Since its inception, over 500,000 youths have participated in the PeaceJam program, engaging in over 310,000 service-learning projects.

Through PeaceJam programs, young people study the lives and work of the Nobel Peace Laureates and the strategies they use to address community and global issues through non-violence. Youths then design and carryout service-learning projects to address issues in their own communities.

In 2006, PeaceJam launched the Global Call to Action — a 10-year campaign asking youths to do service-learning projects that address the root causes of the most pressing issues facing the world today including racism, extreme poverty, environmental degradation, and human rights issues.

» Visit PeaceJam's website to learn more.

Media Winner: CosmoGirl! Born To Lead

CosmoGIRL! empowers and inspires young women to be leaders in all
aspects of their lives. From setting the latest trends to standing up
for what they believe in, their 8 million readers were born to lead.
CosmoGIRL! is the number one selling teen magazine at the newsstand.

CosmoGIRL! received a Media Partnership Award from the National
Eating Disorders Association, in recognition of the magazine's work
toward promoting a positive body image. A few of their signature
editorial and marketing initiatives include: Fifty Best Colleges for
Girls, CosmoGIRL! Annual Born to Lead Awards, and The CosmoGIRL!
Challenge.

CosmoGIRL! publishes 10 issues annually, and its online counterpart
is www.cosmogirl.com, offering web-savvy readers more opportunities to
interact with the magazine. CosmoGIRL! was named "Startup of the Year";
by Adweek magazine in 2000 and was named to Advertising Age's "A List"
among the top three magazines of 2003.

» Check out CosmoGIRL! online.

Organization Winner: Humane Society Youth

Humane Society Youth serves as the youth education affiliate of The Humane Society of the United States, which is the nation's largest animal protection organization. They have worked since 1973 to educate young people about kindness and respect for all animals and their natural habitats, activate youths in efforts to protect animals, and provide teaching materials, professional development, and other support to teachers and humane educators.

The Human Society Youth is dedicated to implementing a strategy that focuses on working with educators, community leaders, youths, and youth-based clubs to educate about the power of youth engagement and service-learning around the humane treatment of animals. Their flagship program, Mission: Humane, positions young people from kindergarten through high school as community assets and resources around the issues of the Humane Society.

 » Tour the Human Society Youth website.

Youth Winner: Trevor Dougherty

Trevor Dougherty, 15, exemplifies the The 19th Annual National Service-Learning Conference theme, Youth for a Change through the many projects he has initiated and completed.

By age 10, he raised nearly $3,000 to fight poverty in Uganda and to assist an AIDS orphanage in South Africa — two issues he continues to work toward. This year, he began producing Internet videos to raise more awareness for a variety of cauases. One of his videos received so many views on YouTube, he was named a "select" homepage editor for four days. In this role, he controlled the videos highlighted on YouTube’s homepage.

As a YouTube editor, he was able to promote videos that raised awareness for ChristmasFuture, Avaaz.org, and videos focusing on Darfur and world peace.

» Learn more about Dougherty by viewing his work on YouTube.

The Harris Wofford Award is a recognition of the youth service moment,
it honors Harris Wofford's life work of making "service and
service-learning the common expectation and common experience of every
young person in America."