WASHINGTON, D.C. — For their commitment to public service, Kirsten Lodal and Brian Kreiter, founders of National Student Partnerships, will receive a prestigious Jefferson Award for Public Service later this month. The awards are meant to encourage and honor individuals for their achievements and contributions through public and community service; Lodal and Kreiter have been chosen as recipients of the 2004 Samuel S. Beard Award for Greatest Public Service by an Individual 35 or Under.

Lodal and Kreiter founded National Student Partnerships (NSP) in 1998 while undergraduates at Yale University, where they recognized a gap between the university and the New Haven, Conn., community that surrounds it. To bridge this divide, they designed a program using college student volunteers to coordinate access to existing social services, including job training, housing, health care, day care, and transportation.

The pair’s combined vision has culminated in a national movement of students grounded in direct action and committed to strengthening the networks of community support for all Americans. Since its founding, NSP has grown to include offices in 15 cities across the country, where volunteers from 43 colleges and universities have helped more than 6,000 people achieve their goals. NSP remains the nation’s only year-round, student-led volunteer service organization that links people in need with the resources and opportunities that allow them to become self-sufficient.

“Ms. Lodal and Mr. Kreiter are being honored for their innovation and selfless dedication in creating National Student Partnerships (NSP), for their dedication to communities across America, and for their vision for a brighter future,” said Sam Beard, president and co-founder of the American Institute for Public Service.

Mr. Beard, along with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and U.S. Sen. Robert Taft, Jr., founded the American Institute for Public Service and established the Jefferson Awards in 1972 as the “‘Nobel Prize’ for public and community service in the United States.” Past Jefferson Award recipients include Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger and Cesar Chavez.

Joining Lodal and Kreiter in receiving awards this year will be U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, and the Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, noted civil rights leader.

The award will be presented at a nationally televised ceremony, which will be held on Tuesday, June 22, 2004, at 7 p.m. in the East Hall of Union Station.

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