More than two dozen faculty, staff, students and organizations were recognized by the Committee for advancing our shared goals.

Gloria Bonilla-Santiago, who founded a charter school in 1997 that has since become a K-12 program offering her students the opportunity to attend Rutgers tuition-free, was recognized by the university for the work of his life of service to the Camden community.

Bonilla-Santiago, founder of LEAP Academy University Charter School, was named the 2024 recipient of the Clement A. Price Human Dignity Award during a ceremony Thursday. This award is the highest honor the university bestows upon members of the community for promoting the common good.

She was among more than two dozen faculty, staff, students and school organizations recognized by the Committee to Advance Our Shared Goals for their achievements in promoting equity and diversity.

“The CACP Awards are an opportunity to recognize demonstrated commitments to appreciating diversity, strengthening inclusion, and substantial and sustained community engagement across Rutgers,” said Joan Collier, vice-president. assistant president for equity and inclusion. “The awards make visible work that adds to the richness of university life but which may go unnoticed in everyday university life.”

The Clement A. Price Human Dignity Awards are named for the late Rutgers Board of Governors Distinguished Professor, who died in 2014. Price was a revered voice, the official city historian of Newark, and a renowned scholar of Afro history -American at Rutgers-Newark. He was the founding director of the Price Institute on ethnicity, culture and the modern experience, which was posthumously named in his honor. In 2021, this long-standing award was modified to emphasize an individual’s body of work and proven story, recognizing achievements worthy of a lifetime achievement award.

Bonilla-Santiago, professor emeritus of public policy at Rutgers-Camden, is known as the “patron saint of Cooper Street,” where the charter school is located in downtown Camden. Since 1997, Bonilla-Santiago has secured about $150 million for the six buildings that serve LEAP, an acronym for “leadership, education and partnership.” Today, the charter school system has transformed four blocks of Cooper Street in Camden into a vibrant educational corridor.

The education system created by Bonilla-Santiago begins helping Camden children in early childhood.. The Early Learning Research Academy provides early childhood education to infants, toddlers and preschoolers. It is one of five Rutgers Centers of Excellence that Bonilla-Santiago created to support Camden families. The idea is to serve the entire community, and the centers connect Rutgers faculty, students and resources to LEAP programs.

Since the first class graduated in 2005, more than 3,000 students have graduated, and 100 percent of each class has earned a high school diploma.

Through the rigorous curriculum developed and overseen by Bonilla-Santiago, these LEAP graduates enter some of the nation’s most prominent universities. Each year, 30 to 40 students enroll at Rutgers, with support from the Rutgers Alfredo Santiago Endowed Scholarship, which she established in honor of her late husband.

She has expanded her work beyond Camden, working to create educational programs and partnerships in Puerto Rico and Cuba.

To ensure her work continues, Bonilla-Santiago is teaching the next generation of social changemakers at Rutgers. The Jump Start program, for example, places Rutgers undergraduates in preschool classrooms, where they learn how to help children develop reading and writing skills through the federal work-study program.

Three other award categories recognizing others within Rutgers were also presented.

Nick Romanenko/Rutgers University

THE Pinnacle Public Good Awardrecognizing exceptional university collaborations in partnership and for the benefit of the community, were presented to:

• Camden School of Nursing
• Division of Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement (DICE), Rutgers-Camden
• Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs, Rutgers-Camden
• Emily Allen-Hornblower, Professor, Associate Professor of Classics, Department of Classics, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers-New Brunswick

Nick Romanenko/Rutgers University

THE Torchbearer Awardrecognizing the achievements of faculty and staff, were presented to:

• Taja-Nia Henderson, professor of law (on leave), Rutgers Law School, Newark; dean of Rutgers Graduate School at Newark
• Stacy Hawkins, professor of law, Rutgers Law School, Camden
• Rachel Derr, Professor, Associate Dean, Baccalaureate Programs and Clinical Assistant Professor, School of Nursing-Camden
• Oscar Holmes IV, professor, associate professor and director, Rutgers University Executive Program, School of Business, Rutgers-Camden
• Marla Blunt-Carter, Associate Professor of Professional Practice, School of Social Work, Rutgers-New Brunswick
• Lindsay Dhanani, Professor, Associate Professor, Human Resources Management, School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers-New Brunswick
• Jessica Hamilton, Professor, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, New Brunswick
• Eveling Hondros, professor, assistant professor, and coordinator of Spanish for the Health Professions, Department of World Languages ​​and Cultures, Rutgers-Camden
• Deepa Kumar, professor of journalism and media studies, School of Communication and Information, Rutgers-New Brunswick
• David Salas-de la Cruz, associate professor of chemistry/director of the graduate program in chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Rutgers-Camden
• Madinah Elamin, Staff Member, Senior Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Douglas Residential College, Rutgers-New Brunswick

Nick Romanenko/Rutgers University

THE Impact Prizerewarding students and student organizations, were given to:

• Amber Stone, graduate student, Rutgers School of Public Health, Rutgers-New Brunswick
• Shaan Mody, undergraduate, Rutgers Camden College of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers-Camden
• Jenna Ahmed, undergraduate, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers-Camden
• Jae Kerstetter, graduate student, SEBS; Entomology, Rutgers-New Brunswick
• Emily Hanselman, graduate student, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers-New Brunswick
• Sathya Gopinath, undergraduate student, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers-New Brunswick
• Jessica Huertas Monterroso, graduate student, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers-New Brunswick
• Mahajan hard. Graduate Student, Rutgers Law School, Newark
• Emily Sullivan, undergraduate student, Rutgers Honors College Biomedical Engineering, Rutgers-New Brunswick
• Paolo Miyashiro Bedoya. Graduate Student, Center for Social Justice Education & LGBT Communities, Rutgers-New Brunswick
• Pranita Sannidhi, undergraduate student, Rutgers Honors College, New Brunswick
• HombRes, recognized student organization, Division of Student Academic Success/TRiO Student Support Services, Rutgers-Camden
• The Multicultural Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Actions, recognized student organization, Rutgers Health