“We need to nurture, challenge and support exceptional students and future leaders who epitomize the values of academic excellence, intellectual integrity, ethical inquiry and civic engagement.”

Those words — written by UUP member Laura Anker, a professor of American studies at SUNY Old Westbury — most aptly define the purpose of the UUP College Scholarship Trust Fund. Anker wrote those words in a letter of recommendation for one of this year’s three scholarship recipients — all of whom represent the best and brightest that SUNY has to offer.

The scholarship recipients for 2007 are:

• Elizabeth Gray, a senior majoring in philosophy at UAlbany;

• Selena Hill, a junior studying media and communications at SUNY Old Westbury; and,

• Allison Rent, a sophomore at SUNY Oswego, who has yet to declare a major.

The recipients received their awards at last month’s Fall Delegate Assembly in Buffalo.

The scholarship fund was created by UUP in the 1980s to celebrate its members’ commitment to academic excellence and the life of the mind. One-time scholarships of $2,000 are given in honor of UUP members and their families who have donated generously — both in time and in money — to the scholarship fund.

This year, the scholarships are given to honor the late Eugene Link, a UUP founder and professor emeritus of history at SUNY Plattsburgh; the late Robert Carter, an associate professor of history at SUNY Oswego, and his wife Katherine; and Gertrude Butera, a professor emeritus at SUNY Alfred and an honorary scholarship fund trustee.

Elizabeth Gray spent her youth walking the picket lines alongside her parents. It was this early exposure to civic involvement that has made Gray who she is today — a young woman ready to accept the responsibility of improving the world in which she lives.

“In the Bronx in the 1980s, Reaganomics was arguably weakening the country’s working class and bombs were being dropped in the Middle East,” Gray said. “My parents would bring us to protests, where heated debates would take place above my head. As a result, I developed a spark of interest that evolved into my commitment to issues of social, political and economic justice.”

Gray was campus coordinator of a political organization called “Democracy Matters,” which is devoted to organizing students around the issue of campaign finance reform. She also was a co-organizer of the university’s Philosophy Club, and is credited with starting a student discussion group on applied ethics. She is a

private tutor and has been a volunteer for Citizen Action of New York and the Ithaca Breast Cancer Alliance.

“Elizabeth is a true leader and an advocate for student issues,” said UUPer Debernee Privott, UAlbany’s Alumni Quad coordinator. “She gets involved in campus life and beyond to ensure that she is a well-rounded and contributing member of society.”

Gray has a grade point average of 3.96.

Selena Hill’s volunteer work in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans solidified her goal of using journalism to “become a voice of opposition against the inequities damaging America.” Her compositions on the Katrina disaster earned her a small cash award in the college Poetry Club’s writing contest and left her with an undeniable desire to “create a more just and moral world.”

The winning entries reflected Hill’s firsthand experiences from her trip to New Orleans, where she spent their spring break assisting in voter registration drives, food distribution and child care. Hill refuses to be a bystander in the face of deplorable living conditions in the Ninth Ward. She is organizing a second trip to the Gulf Coast as a member of the college’s New Orleans Relief Planning Committee.

“This life-altering experience changed my political perspective toward government policies and stirred my interest in civic activism,” Hill said.

Hill’s activism doesn’t stop there. She is pushing to make civic engagement a mandated part of every student’s first-year curriculum at Old Westbury; volunteers as a tutor for neighboring high school students; serves as a school ambassador; and is a church youth supervisor.

Hill also is the creator, producer, engineer, writer and host of a two-hour weekly radio show that serves as a forum for students to discuss campus, social and political concerns.

She has a grade point average of 3.86.

Allison Rent understands the power unionism and collective bargaining have on a society — it’s in her blood.

“The importance of unions is ingrained in my DNA,” Rent said, noting how her great-great grandfather stepped off the boat from Ireland and into the coal mines of the late 1880s. She credits the United Mine Workers of America with improving safety conditions that helped him live long enough to start a family. “For my great-great grandfather, it took the strength of the miners banding together to form the union and create change, in order for him to redefine who he was and what kind of life he could make for himself.”

These early lessons shared among the generations led Rent to stand against injustices and for helping others. She successfully helped to overturn her high school administration’s plan to eliminate the Odyssey of the Mind program, and continues to volunteer in the community.

“Allison stands out as one of the most sincere and dedicated volunteers I’ve ever taught,” said UUPer James Pangborn, an adjunct instructor at SUNY Oswego.

Rent has a grade point average of 4.0.

— Karen L. Mattison