Tufts Trustee Deb Jospin (LA '80) will receive this year's Light on the Hill Award in April, in recognition of her continuing outstanding impact on the Tufts community.
Jospin epitomizes Tufts' values through her accomplishments as a Tufts alumna, including her service on the Board of Trustees and her work on President Barack Obama's transition team, Tufts Community Union (TCU) President Duncan Pickard told the Daily.
Every year, the TCU Senate chooses an alum as a recipient for the Light on the Hill Award -- the highest honor that the undergraduate student body bestows on Tufts alumni.
"We are honored to invite Ms. Jospin back to campus to receive this award," Pickard said in a press release. "Her career and success in public service make her a great example of the kind of Tufts alumni I'm proud to look up to."
Jospin, who told the Daily she was "surprised, thrilled and honored" to receive the award, has made substantial efforts to give back to the Tufts community.
"I work really hard in helping Tufts graduates get internships in their first jobs in the nonprofit public sector," she said, noting her work as president of the Daniel A. Dutko Memorial Foundation. The foundation, created to commemorate her late husband, helps a number of Tufts graduates who have demonstrated clear interest in public policy and management find jobs in Washington.
Jospin, who directed AmeriCorps between 1997 and 2001, now heads a consulting firm she co-founded called sagawa/jospin, which advises nonprofits, corporations and foundations. She chairs the board of the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service and was elected to the Tufts Board of Trustees in 2002.
After graduating from Tufts, Jospin studied at the London School of Economics, where she received a master's degree in public policy in 1983. She earned a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1989 and began working at the Corporation for National Service, now known as the Corporation for National and Community Service, in 1993.
President Bill Clinton appointed Jospin the director of AmeriCorps in 1997, a position she held until 2001. Jospin continues to be actively involved with AmeriCorps through her involvement with Sports4Kids, an AmeriCorps program.
Jospin, who co-authored "The Charismatic Organization," a book offering advice and insight into the business and the nonprofit worlds, encouraged students to engage in public service and nonprofit work despite the economic crisis.
"Don't dismiss the plethora of service opportunities that are out there," she said. "I would encourage people to use as much social networking as they can ... really casting a much wider net and being open to possibilities that they may not have considered before."
She further advised students to show versatility when applying for their first job in the face of an increasingly competitive applicant pool.
"Don't be embarrassed to say, 'I am not only an engineer but I'm bilingual,'" she said. "Give people the full flavor of who you are."
Jospin will address the Tufts community on Apr. 22 in the Coolidge Room of Ballou Hall, when she receives the award.
Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler (A '77) received the Light on the Hill Award last year. Other previous recipients include actor Peter Gallagher (A '77), actor Hank Azaria (LA '85), former NBC News President Neal Shapiro (LA '80) and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (A '70, F '71).
