2025 COS Engagement Awards

The following Awards will be presented at the 2025 Western Region Continuums of Service Conference!  Congratulations to these outstanding awardees!  

Wednesday, March 26th

Engaged Student Leader Award 

Shailey Shah and Amanda Britter 

Amanda and Shailey are both fourth year students at California State University, Fresno and are extremely involved in their many clubs and organizations, conduct research in their relative fields, and provide ongoing service to their local community. As Lead CA CESF Fellows, Amanda and Shailey began developing a student track plan for the 2025 Western Regional Continuums of Service Conference in the fall of 2023. Since then, they have completed over 400 hours of service specifically dedicated to this project. Some of their service work has included data collection and evaluation, creating three student subcommittees, accepting and reviewing student presentation proposals, securing a keynote speaker, and creating evaluations and assessments.

Amanda Britter is a fourth year at California State University, Fresno, majoring in Religious Studies, and minoring in Jewish Studies and Recreation Administration. Amanda is involved in the Philosophy Club and Sustainability Club, volunteers as a Sunday school teacher, a dog walker at Fresno Bully Rescue, and serves as a middle and high school Bible study leader. Amanda is a LEAD CA Fellow and works in the Fresno State College Corps office. After obtaining her Bachelor’s, Amanda hopes to go into seminary to become a pastor, and work in the future with nonprofits to serve the community she is in.

Shailey Shah is a third-year Biology major and Spanish minor at California State University, Fresno. After college, she is hoping to matriculate into medical school in order to provide underserved patient populations in the Central Valley with quality care. Shailey is very passionate about community service as she believes service is a two-way street. Shailey believes that when one serves the community, they gain so much back in the form of professional and personal growth. Shailey is a member of the Tzu Chi Collegiate Association, American Medical Students’ Association, and is a UCSF Medical Education Fellowship Student Lead. She serves as an elementary school mentor, Conversations to Rember volunteer, Ambassador for the Richter Center Student Leaders, and volunteers with the Hindu temple of Fresno. Shailey serves as a LEAD CA Fellow and conducts clinical research at UCSF where she serves as an Academic Research Associate. 

Thursday, March 27th

Community Engaged Professional Award  

Jessica Perone, Assistant Director of Engaged Learning, Washington State University  

Jessica Perone has worked at the Washington State University Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) for over eight years. Jessica is the Assistant Director of Engaged Learning where she leads initiatives to foster community involvement and promote civic responsibility among students, WSU, and residents. With a passion for empowering individuals and strengthening communities, Jessica has been instrumental in developing programs that bridge the gap between academic learning and real-world applications. Throughout the past 25 years, Jessica has been deeply involved with leading and supporting community-based organizations, taught in K-12, Special Education, and Career & Tech Education, as well as worked in various Human Services agencies in a variety of administrative, case management, and direct service roles. Since relocating to Pullman in 2016, Jessica and her family have been active members in the community and she serves on multiple community coalitions, task forces, and boards of directors. 

Engaged Leadership Award  

Dr. John Cech, President, Carroll College    

Dr. John Cech is the 18th president of Carroll College. Since assuming the presidency in 2018, Dr. Cech has intentionally aligned the initiatives, programs, and academic endeavors at Carroll College with its mission of fostering a holistic educational experience rooted in faith, reason, and service to the common good. Under his visionary leadership, Carroll College has become a national model for civic engagement, educational equity, and community-strengthening partnerships. 

Dr. Cech has made civic responsibility a cornerstone of Carroll College’s identity, ensuring students, faculty, and staff are actively engaged in serving the wider community. This commitment is exemplified by Carroll’s recognition as the inaugural recipient of the NAIA’s School of Character Award, honoring its integration of the NAIA’s core values—integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship, and servant leadership—into its athletics program. Carroll’s student-athletes not only excel in competition but also engage in meaningful service initiatives that embody the college’s motto, Non scholae sed vitae — "Not for school, but for life." 

Beyond athletics, Dr. Cech has championed initiatives that encourage students to dedicate themselves to civic and community engagement. Under his leadership, Carroll students collectively contribute over 18,000 hours of service annually through programs like Service Saturdays, where students volunteer across Helena, and immersive service-learning experiences through Campus Ministry’s Headlights trips. The Fighting Saints Food Pantry, established in 2022 by Carroll’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council, further demonstrates this commitment by addressing food insecurity on campus and fostering a culture of care and responsibility. 

He holds a doctorate in higher education leadership, a master’s in nonprofit management, and a bachelor’s in business administration and computer information systems. 

Engaged Campus Award  

Weber State University  

 For over 135 years, Weber State University has served the Ogden, Utah community through its core themes of access, learning, and community. Ogden has long been one of the state's most diverse communities, and the access core theme reflects WSU's commitment to providing affordable, quality education to communities with significant socioeconomic and cultural differences. The learning core theme is central to our mission to provide transformative educational experiences and its commitment to support student success. The community core theme reflects WSU's role as an educational, cultural, and economic steward for the region. 

These themes, and their intersections, are evident in all that we do and prioritize as an institution. WSU’s vision is to be a leader in transforming lives by meeting all students where they are, challenging and guiding them to achieve their goals academically and in life. 

As a Carnegie-classified campus for Community Engagement since 2008, WSU continues to build infrastructure and culture that deepens, integrates and makes more pervasive our commitment to community engagement on three levels. At the micro level, WSU is student-focused, developing civically-minded graduates through curricular and co-curricular community engagement. At the meso level, the focus is on the institution rethinking business practices in hiring, purchasing, investing, and sustainability to be more socially responsible in our community. At the macro level, WSU uses its convening power to facilitate collaboration between anchor institutions, community, and industry partners to take collective action addressing community challenges, building sustainable economic eco-systems, and viable workforce development pipelines. 

Friday, March 28th

Engaged Scholar Award  

Atina Pascua, Director Civic and Community Engagement,
UH Mānoa & Executive Director, PEACE  

Dr. Ulla Hasager, Director of Civic Engagement,
College of Social Sciences, UH Mānoa  

Dr. Ulla Hasager is Director of Civic Engagement and Senior Advisor in Engagement to the Dean of the College of Social Sciences (CSS). She is home-based in ACCESS (Advising, Civic and Community Engagement in the Social Sciences), which gives her an opportunity to work with students as whole persons throughout their educational career. She is a key leader of campus and systemwide engagement work, and is a nationally and internationally recognized scholar in the area of civic and community engagement. 

Atina Pascua began her career at UHM in 1994, directing the Service Learning Program. Under her leadership, the program’s scope included Hawaiian Place of Learning Community-based statewide service opportunities, national and International service program options for students, and professional development for faculty to grow impact on campus. She has been instrumental in moving the campus from Service Learning into a broader focus of Civic and Community Engagement. She has also serves as the Executive Director of Hawaii Pacific Islands Campus Compact (HPICC), now renamed the Pacific Education Alliance for Civic Engagement (PEACE).  

Each a powerhouse in their own right, together Atina and Ulla have transformed the UH Manoa civic engagement landscape. For over 28 years, they have worked together on numerous projects, locally and nationally - combining their different experiences, backgrounds and strengths to give students and faculty opportunities for deeply meaningful education. Several of the accomplishments of each would not have been possible without the support of the other. Over the years, they have sustained annual faculty workshops and mentorship, and developed many programs related to civic engagement in Hawaii and the Pacific. They have taken active leadership roles at the University level, guiding policy around community engagement and moving the campus into the award-winning Engaged Campus realm.  

Currently, Atina and Ulla are working to formalize high-impact teaching practices through civic engagement, focusing on environmental stewardship while using a Native Hawaiian Place of Learning framework. In partnership with the Assessment Office, they have joined forces with the Office of the Provost to submit an application for the 2026 Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement. They co-chaired the initial planning group in 2022, and are on the campus-wide writing team preparing the application.

Campus-Community Partnership Award 

Seattle University & Upower

Seattle University (SU) and Upower have been working closely in partnership since 2021. Over these last three years, SU students have contributed thousands of hours of mentorship and education to Upower youth, gaining valuable first-hand experience working with local underserved populations in King County. Faculty and students from across seven Seattle University colleges and departments have engaged with Upower to help them confront systemic and institutional inequalities adversely affecting underserved young people, while providing access to the physical, social-emotional, and academic benefits of physical activity and play.  

Upower confronts systemic and institutional inequalities adversely affecting underserved youth, particularly in local schools, juvenile detention centers, and with migrant youth. They do this through trauma-informed coaching, using movement and play to empower and educate young people across King County.  Upower’s mission aligns well with Seattle University and the Sundborg Center for Community Engagement’s commitment to advance justice, remove institutional barriers, and educate the changemakers of the future. It is no surprise, then, that Upower has quickly become one of the most popular, active partner locations for community engaged learning at Seattle University. 

While Upower works with Seattle University faculty and students from across seven different departments and colleges, their longest-running and closest connection to Seattle University is perhaps with our Department of Kinesiology.  Over the last three years, Upower has hosted over 55 student interns and has received over 1,000 hours of direct education and mentorship on trauma development and crisis intervention strategies from Kinesiology students. These students receive direct experience designing exercise programming, developing their trauma-informed training skills through Upower’s Train the Trainer program, and in working directly with underserved youth in the central Seattle area. In fact, the connection with Kinesiology has become so close that some current Upower staff members are SU graduates who fell in love with the organization’s mission while working as interns or through community engaged learning.  

Since 2021, Seattle University and Upower have partnered to provide: 

  • 37 guest speaking lectures for Upower staff and youth 

  • 78 Seattle University interns and community engaged learning students 

  • 3,091 mentorship hours to Upower youth 

  • 3,275 education hours for Upower youth 

  • 436 professionals trained through Upower programming 

Over the last three years, SU's partnership with Upower has helped create transformative opportunities that are making a lasting impact across our region.  As our partnership deepens and our community engaged learning work increases, we hope our shared efforts will continue to foster change for youth in King County for generations to come and provide our students with a one-of-a-kind educational experience in our community.

Questions

Please direct questions about the 2025 COS Awards to Elaine Ikeda: elaine@leadcalifornia.org.