News Release

Brook Dambacher skipped a spring break trip to Cancun, deciding instead to spend six days with a church group lending a hand in an impoverished, rural area of Arkansas. She volunteered in a school, a hospital and helped paint and repair residents' homes.

She also connected to some of the people in a way she didn't anticipate.

Her moving 1,400-word essay describing that spring break garnered top honors in the third annual essay contest on citizenship sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies. Dambacher 21, a history and philosophy major at Lewis University in Romeoville, Ill., won $2,000.

Brook Dambacher, 21, a history and philosophy major at Lewis University in Romeoville, Ill., who won first place and $2,000.

Dambacher received a certificate and check during a presentation ceremony in San Diego, Calif., on Sunday, April 2, 2000, at the annual meeting of the American Society for Public Administration, a 10,000-member group of academics and practitioners of public policy. Second- and third-place prizes were also awarded.

A year ago, Dambacher had made plans to go to Cancun with her friend, Erin. But a campus ministries flyer caught her attention. She opted for the service trip, rather than the tan. "Erin went to Cancun," Dambacher later wrote. "I went to McGehee, Ark. Erin got a tan. I got hope for the human race."

From left: Brook Dambacher, Christie Shannon, a philosophy major at North Central College in Lisle, Ill., who won third place and $1,000; Aaron Lefkovitz, a student at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., who won second place and $1,500; and Lester Salamon from the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies.

Dambacher, who is from Hampshire, Ill., will graduate next month and plans to use the $2,000 to help pay for law school in the fall.

Second place in the essay contest went to Aaron Lefkovitz, a student at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., who won $1,500. Third place went to Christie Shannon, a philosophy major at North Central College in Lisle, Ill., who won $1,000.

Listen to the students' remarks on citizenship.