Sarah Belle Brown 2023 Community Service Award Nomination Due October 13 at 5 p.m.

ABOUT THE AWARD

The Sarah Belle Brown Community Service Award recognizes faculty, staff and students who serve as examples of social responsibility and have, over an extended period of time, contributed significant personal time and effort to advance the University of New Mexico’s public service mission.

Community service is defined as service outside of the general scope of one’s professional or academic assignment at UNM. Each recipient will receive a $1,500 cash award. Nominations will be blind reviewed by faculty, staff, and students.

AWARD ELIGIBILITY

• Faculty: Must be tenured faculty or on a tenure-track, clinical educator, or lecturer.
• Staff: Must be employed at least .50 FTE and passed the probationary period.
• Students: May be undergraduate or graduate but must be enrolled in a degree program and taking a minimum of 6 credit hours.

GUIDELINES

• Nominations are accepted until October 13 at 5 p.m.
• Nominations may be submitted by UNM faculty, staff, students, alumni, or community members - self nominations are not accepted.
• An individual may be nominated by more than one person.
• Please be as specific as possible in answering questions regarding nominees’ service. Nominator may consult with nominee to obtain accurate information. Nominations will be collected online at https://forms.gle/MH2C3ZqFyfKiGKA67
• Please have the following information prepared (350 words or fewer for each section). Do NOT use nominee’s name or specific identifier of the nominee.

  A. Community Service - Describe the nominee’s participation in community service and/or volunteer work. Include the name of program(s) and length of time that he/she has served.

  B. Contributions to Community - Describe ideas, actions, improvements, or innovations that this individual brought to the community(ies) or State of New Mexico.

  C. Impact of Service - Describe how the nominee’s volunteer work has impacted the people of particular communities and/or the State of New Mexico.

A reception for award recipients and their nominees will be held November 15th at University House.

ABOUT SARAH BELLE BROWN

Sarah has devoted time and passion to community service over the last 33 years in New Mexico, a commitment that began in high school where she worked in the ER of Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. She tutored elementary school children in Watts during college and volunteered as a Head Start aid in Marin City after graduation. Those experiences led her to become a teacher where she taught recently arrived, Spanish-speaking children at LA City Schools. All subjects were taught in Spanish until the children learned enough English to study in their new language. In New Mexico, Sarah founded and managed a downtown café where she nearly always employed at least one homeless person and encouraged young employees to complete their college degrees. Community service in Albuquerque and Santa Fe has been at the Board level. She is currently a board member for the National Hispanic Cultural Center and Foundation, Tamarind Institute, NM Appleseed, and The Lensic Performing Arts Center. She has served on the boards of Women’s International Study Center (WISC in Santa Fe), Amy Biehl Charter High School, CNM Foundation (formerly TVI), and Mt. Vernon College Trustees in Washington, DC and was Chairman of Children’s Home Society of California and Chairman of Chinatown After-School Program for Cantonese-speaking children in San Francisco. She also was in the first cohort of CASA (Court-Appointed-Special-Advocate for San Francisco Juvenile Court). When Sarah was a small girl, six or seven, her grandfather sat her down and told her she was “very lucky.” “Not everyone is as lucky as you,” he continued. “When you grow up you must share what you have and share your time with others.” She says she is still trying.

For more information, please contact Terri at tjohnson15@unm.edu.