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St. Olaf College student receives Melvin George Fellowship for service

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May 18, 2001

NORTHFIELD, Minn. ? St. Olaf College junior Lisa Leopold of Wesmont, Ill., has been awarded the Melvin George Leadership/Service Summer Fellowship for the year 2001.

The $2,500 Melvin George Fellowship provides financial support to St. Olaf College students who would otherwise be unable to engage in summer leadership and service. The fellowship encourages students to develop an idea for service work in church, government, business or community.

Leopold will use the fellowship this summer to work with World Relief, an organization that serves U.S. immigrants and refugees. She will work in the organization?s education and immigrant departments, assisting with job training and English as a second language classes. She also will work closely with paralegals to learn about laws and policies that affect immigrants and refugees.

Leopold, a psychology and Spanish major at St. Olaf College, has been teaching English as a second language for more than three years, mainly on a volunteer basis through Literacy Volunteers of America and the English as a second language program at St. Olaf.

While at St. Olaf Leopold organized a tutoring program for English as a second language students and St. Olaf volunteers. She taught English as a second language at a junior college last summer and has participated in the America Reads program and Project Friendship. She also served as a volunteer tour guide.

Last fall she studied in Ecuador as part of St. Olaf College?s international studies program. In Ecuador she worked on an independent research project and taught English classes as an intern. She also organized educational and recreational activities for children.

The Melvin George Summer Fellowship is meant to encourage leadership skills and commitment to service by St. Olaf students. Dr. Melvin D. George, president emeritus of St. Olaf College, served as the college?s eighth president, from 1985 to 1994.

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St. Olaf College prepares students to become responsible citizens of the world, fostering development of mind, body and spirit. A four-year, coeducational liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), St. Olaf has a student enrollment of 2,950 and a full-time faculty complement of approximately 300. It is one of Money Guide?s top 100 "elite values in college education today," and it leads the nation?s colleges in percentage of students who study abroad.

Contact Michael Cooper at 507-786-3315 or cooperm@stolaf.edu.