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Community Engagement Awards celebrate partnerships creating positive change

People talking at Einhorn Awards
Taylor Cole ’26, student employee of the year, with her supervisors at New Roots Charter School, Seren Ozkan (left), executive projects director, and Kris Erickson (right), dean of postsecondary success, chat during the Einhorn Center awards event on April 22, 2026. Aria Mix/Cornell University

By Olivia Hall

The fourth annual Community Engagement Awards celebrated community-engaged work by students, faculty and staff from across Cornell over the past year. Hosted by the David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement in the Statler Hotel Ballroom, the April 22 event highlighted how sustained, reciprocal partnerships can develop student leaders while strengthening public trust and making meaningful change.

Opening the evening, Basil Safi, M.Eng. ’24, executive director of the Einhorn Center, emphasized how broadly and deeply embedded community engagement has become at the university, reaching some 86 percent of undergraduate students and hundreds of faculty. “What makes the Einhorn Center and Cornell so special is that everybody’s participating,” he said. “Regardless of what door you walk in and what you choose to do during your time here, there’s a pathway to get involved in engaged learning to make an impact on society.”

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