You reached this page through the archive. Click here to return to the archive.

Note: This article is over a year old and information contained in it may no longer be accurate. Please use the contact information in the lower-left corner to verify any information in this article.

Alumni, students recognized by Hawkinson Foundation

By John Andert '10
October 2, 2007

St. Olaf alumni Lowell Erdahl '53, Carol Erdahl '54 and Chloe Stull Lane '07, plus current students Vera Belazelkoska '09 and Laura Groggel '08 have been recognized by the Vincent L. Hawkinson Foundation for Peace and Justice. The foundation's scholarship awards are given to people who have demonstrated peace and justice in their own lives and who have acted upon injustice and violence in the world.

Groggel, a music and women's studies double major at St. Olaf, is president of the college's Amnesty International Chapter. She also served as chair of St. Olaf's first annual Human Rights Week last fall, and this past summer interned with the United Students Against Sweatshops in South Africa.

Belazelkoska, a political science and economics major, is a coordinator of the college's peace and justice group, active in the Student Government Association and in the student Amnesty International chapter. She has helped coordinate and participate in student service trips to Thailand, Washington D.C. and New Orleans. She will spend the spring semester in a study program in Namibia sponsored by the Center for Global Education.

Stull-Lane majored in American Racial and Multicultural Studies, and designed her second major in sustainable international development. While at St. Olaf she studied in Namibia and Kenya, and held an internship with Womankind Kenya. She also has served as a youth delegate to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. Currently, she is enrolled in the Master's Program in International Development and Management at Lund University, Sweden.

Team effort
Lowell Erdhal, bishop emeritus of the St. Paul Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and his wife, Carol Erdahl, were selected to receive this year's Honorary Award. Lowell frequently speaks on peacemaking as a counteraction to war and chairs the board of World Citizen -- a nonprofit organization that empowers the education community to promote a just and peaceful world through activities for youth. Carol Erdahl, a librarian and also co-owner of The Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul, has been involved in several literacy programs and has conducted workshops that link together peace and justice with children's literature.

The Vincent L. Hawkinson Foundation has awarded more than $54,000 in scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students. The Vincent L. Hawkinson Foundation for Peace and Justice was established in 1988 to honor the late Rev. Vincent L. Hawkinson, a lifelong advocate for peace. He was an active advocate against the war in Vietnam and encouraged fellow pastors and the church itself to stand against the war.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.