Six students and three faculty members have been selected to help determine the recipients of the 2018 Opus Prize, a $1.2 million annual award that recognizes individuals or organizations who address persisting social problems within their communities. The student and faculty ambassadors will accompany members of the Opus Prize foundation board on site visits next spring to the communities of three Opus Prize finalists. While the destinations of these site visits remain confidential, the ambassadors will travel in teams of three to the specific locations where the Opus Prize finalists carry out their work.
UP student ambassadors include:
- Brenna Chapman ’19, a business major from San Diego, California
- Emily Holguin ’19, a nursing major from Ventura, California
- Ezedin Jabr ’19, a social work major from Vancouver, Washington
- Nick Krautscheid ’19, a secondary education major from Beaverton, Oregon
- Julianna Oliphant ’20, a nursing major from Kaneohe, Hawai’i
- Alex Peterson ’19, a business major from Happy Valley, Oregon.
UP faculty ambassadors include:
- Andrew Nuxoll, engineering
- Amber Vermeesch, nursing
- John Watzke, education.
The Opus Prize Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, sponsors the Opus Prize, an annual, faith-based humanitarian award recognizing individuals internationally and domestically who are addressing persistent and pressing social problems within their communities. Each year, the Opus Prize Foundation chooses a Catholic university to serve as its partner in selecting the Opus Prize laureates and finalists. The award is one of the world’s largest faith-based awards for social entrepreneurship, composed of one $1 million award and two $100,000 prizes.
The University of Portland will host a week-long celebration in Portland from November 11-15, 2018, during which all three finalists will be on campus to visit classrooms and engage in conversation with the University community and the greater Portland community. This week will culminate in the Opus Prize Awards Ceremony on November 15, when the $1 million award and two $100,000 prizes will be announced.
For more information about the Opus Prize, please visit www.opusprize.org. For additional information about the University of Portland’s partnership with the Opus Prize Foundation, please contact Dan McGinty, Dundon-Berchtold Institute for Moral Formation & Applied Ethics, at x7596 or at mcgintyd@up.edu.