During an April 25 luncheon at the Garden Court Hotel in Palo Alto, Calif., School of Medicine Professor GABRIEL GARCIA was honored with the Miriam Aaron Roland Volunteer Service Prize. Garcia is co-founder of the Patient Advocacy Program, a program that trains Stanford students to serve as volunteers in local health clinics.
The Haas Center for Public Service awards the annual Roland Prize to members of the faculty “who engage and involve students in integrating academic scholarship with significant and meaningful volunteer service to society.” It was created by alumna Miriam Aaron Roland and includes a $5,000 cash award. Garcia is the 14th faculty member to receive the award since it was established in 2004.
Also during the event, three community groups and a Stanford student organization were recognized with 2012 Community Partnership Awards. This year’s winners were:
- DreamCatchers, an after-school program for low-income youth, which was founded by SARAH MUMMAH ’10 when she was an undergraduate;
- Canopy, an organization devoted to preserving trees and planting more;
- InnVision, a group that provides housing and services to homeless people, which shared the honor with Stanford Project on Hunger, a Stanford student group that collects, saves and prepares unused, leftover food on Stanford’s campus for distribution to the hungry.
Garcia was traveling, but accepted the honor via video. Stanford News Service videographer STEVE FYFFE captured the festivities and included Garcia’s acknowledgement in this video.