Senior David Mok received this year's Wendell Phillips Memorial Scholarship, an award that affords him the honor of serving as the sole student speaker at the May 22 Baccalaureate Commencement Ceremony.
The Wendell Phillips Award is granted each year to a junior or senior who has demonstrated remarkable public speaking skills and a strong commitment to public service.
Five students, all majoring in either International Relations or political science, were this year named finalists for the award.
The finalists, seniors Mok, Arun Yang, Elizabeth Herman and Daniel Wolf and junior Michael Hawley, each on Wednesday gave a presentation in the Alumnae Lounge to a panel of judges from the Committee on Student Life (CSL).
The Wendell Phillips Memorial Scholarship was created in 1896 in honor of the Boston preacher and orator Wendell Phillips, who dedicated his life to the abolition of slavery. The scholarship is one of two prizes given out by the Wendell Phillips Memorial Fund Association; the other is awarded to a student at Harvard University.
An open nomination process sponsored by the CSL began in November. Sixteen nominees were selected to submit application materials, including a résumé, a writing sample, a list of past community service activities and an audio recording, according to Yang.
The CSL committee then narrowed the pool down to the five finalists who during the presentation were asked to discuss a situation in which they were required to contribute to a larger social cause and what they learned from that experience.
The exact prompt, following a quote from President Barack Obama, was "Discuss a situation in which you hitched your wagon to something larger and what you learned from doing that."
Associate Professor of Classics Steven Hirsch, chair of the CSL, said that the candidates gave very good presentations.
"I thought that in general we had a very strong crop of applicants this year," he said. "It was a strong pool altogether; everyone did a really good job and we ended up choosing somebody who we think did an especially fine job."
According to Hirsch, the judges considered four criteria, namely the relevance of the presentation to the prompt, the clarity of the presentation, the quality of oration and the candidate's enthusiasm.
"[Mok] was very strong in all the categories," Hirsch said. "He seemed not to be working from notes but just spoke his piece. He was strong and clear and had a compelling story that really was an excellent response to the topic we had given."
Mok discussed his experience creating his own social entrepreneurship company — a Web site that helps connect service organizations with young people interested in volunteering their time.
Mok told the audience that he created his Web site to capitalize on the opportunities offered by the Internet.
"I don't want future generations to look back at us and see that we had the Internet, and all we did with it was watch YouTube videos, stalk your friends on Facebook or order pizza at three o'clock in the morning," Mok said in his presentation.
Mok also discussed the significant role that his father has played in inspiring his career choice.
"My dad was a surgeon. When he would come home every day I would say, ‘How was your day?' and he would say, ‘It was a normal day,' but I would know that for someone else he saved a person's life that day," Mok said. "I want to be able to say the same thing."
Mok expressed his excitement at being selected as the award recipient, explaining that he had been eager to win it since learning about the prize as a sophomore.
"The thought of one day getting the award has been in the back of my mind ever since I learned about it sophomore year," Mok told the Daily. "That I actually got it is sort of like a dream come true."
Mok said he first arrived at Tufts eager but unsure of how to make a difference. He said that he feels that he has finally found his means of contributing to the greater world and is happy to receive recognition for his efforts.
"When you realize that people do take notice of what you are doing, it is really thrilling," Mok said. "All in all, I am just really grateful."
In addition to speaking at the baccalaureate ceremony, Mok will also receive a cash prize.
Despite not having received the award, Yang said that the experience was a valuable one.
"I thought it was a really good process for me, and allowed me to do a lot of introspective thinking," Yang said.
Brent Yarnell and Ellen Kan contributed reporting to this article.
