ECS Honors Five Students, Senator Claiborne Pell,
Maryland Representative Howard "Pete" Rawlings

Five Students Honored for Outstanding Community Service at Education Commission of the States Annual Meeting:

• Tobey Cho, who established the University of Colorado Conflict Resolution Center;
• Andrew Dillon from the University of Virginia, where he created a food salvation program;
• Shadi Mokhtari, who founded the American University Movement for Global Justice & Responsibility in Washington D.C.;
• Myles Roberts, who coordinated flood relief efforts at West Virginia University;
• Carmen Contreras Shrum, of Brevard Community College in Florida, for her leadership in the formation of the Supervised Visitation/Monitored Exchange Program.

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Claiborne A. Pell is 1997 Recipient of the James Bryant Conant Award

Senator Claiborne A. Pell became the 19th recipient of the James Bryant Conant Award at the 1997 annual meeting of the Education Commission of the States in Providence, RI .

In 1972 Senator Pell authored and witnessed passage of legislation that created Basic Educational Opportunity Grants. Renamed "Pell" grants in 1980 by Congress to honor the Senator, they are federal scholarships which annually award needy students with $2,700 to help pay for college-related expenses. Beyond giving millions of Americans an opportunity to obtain a college education, Pell grants have become the cornerstone of this country's federal student-aid program. Since their inception, 4.5 million Pell grants have been awarded and the program has expended more than $80 billion.

Pell served as U.S. Senator for Rhode Island from 1960 until his retirement in January 1997. During his lengthy service, his forward thinking and persistence resulted in many of this country's landmark pieces of legislation. In addition to the Pell grants, his accomplishments as a senator include:

• Establishing the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities
• Authoring the National Sea Grant College and Program Act.
• Helping to ratify the historic International Nuclear Force treaty to reduce nuclear weapons.
• Fathering a treaty signed by 62 nations that prohibits placement of weapons of mass destruction on the ocean floor.
• Initiating the United Nations Environmental Modification Convention which bans environmental modification for use in warfare.

The James Bryant Conant Award honors an individual for outstanding service to education in the United States. The award was established to honor James Bryant Conant, an internationally known scholar, scientist, statesman and author, and co-founder of ECS. It is presented Annually by the Education Commission of the States.

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Howard P. "Pete" Rawlings Receives 1997 Chairman's Award for Outstanding Service to ECS

Winner of the 1997 ECS Chairman's Award, Howard P. "Pete" Rawlings chairs the Maryland House of Delegates Appropriations Committee. A Democrat, he has represented the Baltimore area for five terms. He recently led the successful effort to get legislative approval of a bill to overhaul Baltimore's school district and provide $254 million in additional funding. When he is not in the General Assembly, Rawlings works as assistant to the president of Baltimore City Community College, where he previously taught calculus and statistics.

Rawlings has been an ECS commissioner since 1979, providing ECS with leadership and vision on issues related to urban education, school accountability, higher education and minority students. He served on the ECS National Task Force for Minority Achievement in Higher Education, which produced the 1990 report, Achieving Campus Diversity: Policies for Change Recently he co-authored a new ECS publication, State Strategies To Address Diversity and Enhance Equity in Higher Education..

Currently, Rawlings serves on the ECS/Annenberg Advisory Panel, a select group of nationally recognized leaders who are providing guidance for work under ECS' five-year grant from the Annenberg Foundation. He also is a member of the national Advisory Committee for the ECS State Leadership for Learning initiative, which builds on ECS' RE:Learning partnership by providing intensive assistance to help state leaders create policy environments that support improved schooling.

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