The Fairfield University Alumni Association awarded Marco Ambrosio, of Livingston, the William J. Kramer '60 Humanitarian Award on April 16 for his outstanding commitment and service to the national student-run Face AIDS organization. This award is presented annually to a senior based on dedication to volunteerism to an external community activity that best exemplifies the Ignatian tradition of serving others.
He and fellow Fairfield University student Jennifer Miller, also honored by the Alumni Association with the Humanitarian Award, started a Fairfield University Face AIDS chapter last year. The organization raises money for HIV and AIDS programs in Africa and works in conjunction with AIDS activist Dr. Paul Farmer's organization, Partners in Health.
Miller approached Ambrosio about starting a Fairfield University Face AIDS chapter in the fall of 2006, and Ambrosio was able to employ his contacts and expertise to accelerate the club approval process to make the chapter official. As a result of their passion and hard work, Ambrosio and Miller were able to bring a national AIDS conference to Fairfield in February featuring Stephen Lewis, an international leader in the fight against AIDS.
Ambrosia conducted research during spring break 2005 on population rates in Nicaragua. He returned to Nicaragua last summer to work with CISAS (Centre for Information and Advisory Services in Health), where interned with the non-governmental organization, helping to establish an HIV self-help group and a program in "drug prevention through sports."
In addition to his work with Face AIDS, Ambrosio was a Fairfield University Student Association senator and the FUSA secretary for student life. He also founded the Stags in the Stands club, for which he received the 2006 Campus Interest Award.
Ambrosio created an individually designed major, Social Justice in Latin America, a first at Fairfield. He is also graduating with a minor in Spanish and a pre-medicine concentration.
Posted On: 05-08-2007 10:05 AM
Volume: 39 Number: 221