ORONO, Maine — A University of Maine student who co-founded an organization that supports at-risk children has received a $10,000 award for her commitment to community service while completing undergraduate studies.
Rachel Binder-Hathaway, who helped start the nonprofit Seeds of Change while working toward a dual degree in financial economics and business administration, won the Pearson Prize for Higher Education for her volunteerism efforts as a single mother who was still in school, according to a Pearson Foundation press release.
Binder-Hathaway is a student in the honors college who plans to move to Bangladesh in 2012 as a Fulbright Fellow to volunteer and research microfinance and poverty.
She was one of 20 students nationally to receive the award.
Films created by the winners may be viewed at www.pearsonfoundation.org/pearsonprize/2011/fellows.html.