Nomination Guidelines
- Eligible Classes: For 2026, we are seeking nominations for alumni celebrating their reunion from classes ending in 1 and 6.
- Timing: If the person you wish to recommend is not in a reunion year, please save your nomination until their next milestone reunion.
- Self-Nominations: We welcome and encourage alumni to nominate themselves.
- Confidentiality: All nominations are kept strictly confidential. Only the final award recipients will be publicly announced in the Spring.
Our Process
The Alumni Council and the Office of Advancement present these awards based on your recommendations. You only need to provide a brief summary of why your nominee is deserving; from there, our teams conduct independent, in-depth research on each candidate. This ensures a thorough selection process and allows us to build a comprehensive profile of each candidate’s impact without requiring the nominator to provide an exhaustive CV.
The Awards
- Arabella Carter Community Service Award
Selected by the Alumni Council
This award recognizes an alum for exceptional volunteer service. The ideal recipient is someone who has advanced social justice, peace, human rights, equity, or access through a deep and sustained commitment that has impacted their community or on a broader level. The Alumni Council hopes to honor an alum who may not have received formal public recognition of their service.
Established by the Council in 1997, the award is named after Arabella Carter, one of the great unsung heroes who worked for peace and social justice in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in the early 1900s. She never sought publicity or recognition for her work and was largely forgotten by all but Friends Historical Library archivists, who saw her hand in Quaker peace and social justice work over three decades. She appears to have received no monetary compensation for all these services, living simply on family money.
Last Year’s Winner: Laura Snyder Brown '95, for her pioneering work co-founding Casa Alma in Charlottesville, VA. View all past winners.- Eugene M. Lang '38, H'81 Impact Award
Selected by the Alumni Council
This award recognizes an alum for professional contributions benefiting society. Honorees may come from the government, non-profit, academic, or private sector. The ideal recipient is someone who, through demonstrated leadership and innovation, has impacted society for the better via professional achievements or activities.
Established in 2010 by the Alumni Council, the award was named for its first recipient, the late Eugene Lang, a longtime supporter of the College who has been described as “a father of innovation.” Founder of the “I Have a Dream” Foundation and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Lang had a long history of philanthropic involvement with Swarthmore. His gifts to the College include the Lang Music Building, the Eugene and Theresa Lang Performing Arts Center, the Lang Center for Civic & Social Responsibility, endowed professorships, support for faculty research and student financial aid, the Lang Summer Social Action Awards, and the Lang Opportunity Scholars Program, which provides funds for students to design and carry out innovative service projects. He was also the founder of Project Pericles, a consortium of colleges and universities that promotes civic engagement and social responsibility as essential parts of their educational programs. In 2008, Lang was named “Joseph H. Kanter Citizen of The Year” by the National Conference on Citizenship, a leading advocate of civic engagement.Last Year’s Winner: Rebecca Sharpless ’90, recognized as a leading force for good in the field of immigration law. View all past winners.
- Joseph B. Shane '25 Alumni Service Award
Selected by the Office of College Advancement
The Shane Award was established in 1985 in honor of the late Joseph B. Shane '25, who served Swarthmore College as vice president for alumni affairs and public relations for more than 21 years. This award is selected by the Office of College Advancement.
Joe's service to the College went beyond a simple job description — his warmth, humor, dedication to the College, and Quaker spirit made a lasting mark on Swarthmore and all who knew him.
Last Year's Winners: Sam Agger ’75 and Rachel Weinberger ’80 for their unwavering service to Swarthmore College and their fellow alumni. View all past winners.
