Youth Award Recipients Visit White House
The Hispanic Heritage Foundation Staff and Youth Award recipients, from the DC area, will attend the 8th annual Tee Ball Initiative at the White House on June 30th. The staff and past recipients will take in the tee ball game on the South Lawn.
Each year little league teams from across the country apply to Little League International to be chosen to play on the South Lawn. President Bush has a long lineage with baseball and is the first Little League Graduate to attain the highest office in the United States. Due to his long commitment and love for baseball The President and First Lady started this Initiative in 2001 to highlight the role that baseball has played in American history and culture. Also The President wants to draw attention and spur interest in America’s national pastime, starting with the youth.
This year the game will have a Hispanic theme and focus on the contributions Latinos have made in the game. The White House during past Tee Ball Initiatives has honored other minorities in baseball such as Jackie Robinson, the first African American player in the Major Leagues. The White House also hosted a Softball Tee Ball game to honor the contributions of women in sports.
Youth Awards Spotlight
National Hispanic Heritage Youth Award winner for Academic Excellence and recent Stanford University graduate has been honored with two of the schools most prestigious recognitions—the J.E. Wallace Sterling Award and the Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award.
The J.E. Wallace Sterling Award recognizes a senior whose undergraduate activities demonstrate the strong potential for continued service to the University and the alumni community. Service might include involvement in athletics, clubs, drama and musical productions, fundraising, journalism, public service, religious organizations, residential education, social and political organizations, student government, or University committees.
The Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award recognizes distinctive and exceptional contributions to undergraduate education or the quality of student life at Stanford. The contribution may be made for such activities as curriculum design, program development, advising excellence, residential education, committee leadership, or extracurricular education.
Jonathan was selected for his heartfelt devotion to and deep affection for undergraduate life as a freshman RA and new student orientation coordinator; for an unbridled, motivating energy that sustained his fellow students through the exhaustion of Dance Marathon, Relay for Life and Students for Obama; for the inimitable way he gently walks through life on the Farm, listening intently, intuiting the needs of others and spreading kindness at every turn; for living the creed "I don't have to, I get to" and inspiring others to understand that life is a set of opportunities and gifts, not burdens; and for the contagious nature of his boundless enthusiasm and outlook on life, all informing his uncommon love for this special place between the foothills and the bay where the Stanford spirit was born in him.
“I do not recall a single student in the history of the university that received both these awards,” said Dean of Freshmen, Julie Lythcott-Haims when commenting on Jonathan’s accomplishment.
So what’s next for Jonathan? He is off to Chicago to work in Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters as a member of the Latino media team.
When asked to justify his decision, Jonathan states, “I’ve seen the transformations that he’s already made. He’s inspired our whole nation to participate in government, especially younger voters. Regardless of your ideals, you have to respect that.”
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