Winners of Princeton Prize in Race Relations honored

Two of the three first-prize winners of the Princeton Prize in Race Relations -- which recognizes high school students for outstanding work in their schools or communities to advance the cause of race relations -- were honored Wednesday, May 12, at a ceremony on Capitol Hill.

The Princeton Prize in Race Relations program was launched in 2003 with pilot projects in the Washington, D.C., and Boston metropolitan areas. Next year, it also will be offered in Atlanta, Houston and St. Louis with the ultimate goal of expanding the program nationwide.

Jacqueline Akyea, a senior at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda, Md., and Zainep Mahmoud, a senior at Benjamin Banneker Senior High School in Washington, D.C., shared first-place honors and each received $500.

Shan Shan Nie of Boston, a senior at Cohasset High School, will be presented with a $1,000 award by the Alumni Association of New England on Wednesday, May 19. In addition to the three first-place winners, nine other Washington, D.C., students and 15 Boston-area students were selected to receive certificates of accomplishment for their projects and work.

The Washington, D.C., prizes were presented by Henry Kennedy Jr. of Princeton's class of 1970, a U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia and University trustee. U.S. Rep. John Lewis, an honorary member of Princeton's class of 1987, delivered the ceremony's keynote address on the state of race relations in America. Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, a member of the Princeton class of 1954 and a Princeton trustee, delivered opening remarks to the students, their families and teachers.

Last year, Akyea created and organized a new program at her school called "Unity Day," which is now an annual event. The celebration gave students, staff and parents the opportunity to share their diverse cultures and experiences through song, dance, music and poetry. The event also included inspirational speeches from students who immigrated to the United States from other countries.

In 2001, Mahmoud wrote a play titled "Unforgettable." The play, set shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, was inspired by news reports of harassment and assaults against Muslims and people of Arab and South Asian descent in the United States. It powerfully dramatized the tragic consequences that resulted from stereotyping and offered a sobering plea for racial and religious tolerance. "Unforgettable" was one of nine plays chosen by the Young Playwrights Theatre of Washington for performance throughout the Washington, D.C., area during 2002 and 2003. It was performed at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, the Canadian Embassy and at area schools, community centers and senior citizen centers.

Nie, who immigrated to the United States from China in 2000 and lives in the Dorchester neighborhood, is a member of the Coalition of Asian Pacific American Youth, an organization that cultivates leadership development, community service and cultural awareness. Through that organization, Nie has helped organize workshops such as one on art and activism, which demonstrated the power of artistic expression in addressing social justice issues. She has participated in several community discussions on diversity and racism and designed a flyer for the town of Cohasset's diversity day. Nie successfully has encouraged her teachers to supplement textbooks and other classroom assignments with more culturally diverse reading materials that represent non-Western points of view.

More information about the Princeton Prize winners is available in the award announcement.