Abigail Boatmun ’23, a student in the College of Human Ecology, receives the 2023 Campus-Community Leadership Award from Joel Malina, vice president for university relations. The annual award recognizes a graduating senior for their service to local communities. (Photo credit: Jason Koski)
Abigail Boatmun ’23 remembers participating in community service from her early childhood, tagging along with her parents in their hometown of Durant, Oklahoma. Growing up, she helped wash dishes at a soup kitchen each week, and sold baked goods to raise money for Relay for Life campaigns.
It was a commitment to service that Boatmun, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, continued to nurture and develop as an undergraduate in the College of Human Ecology.
“It’s been a huge part of my life since I was 2 or 3 years old,” she said. “I’m really thankful that I’ve had the chance to continue that passion at Cornell, and to learn with and from my community.”
In a virtual ceremony on May 15, the Division of University Relations honored Boatmun with the Campus-Community Leadership Award, which each year recognizes a graduating senior for their engagement with and service to the greater Ithaca area.
Joel Malina, vice president for university relations, presented Boatmun with a plaque highlighting her participation and leadership “on a myriad of town-gown interests through volunteer, academic and professional positions.” Those interests included the Ithaca Youth Bureau’s Big Brothers Big Sisters program; the nonprofit Ballet and Books; Upward Bound, a college prep program; Cornell’s American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program, where Boatmun was a student employee; and the Program for Research on Youth Development and Engagement (PRYDE) Scholars program, part of the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research (BCTR).
