Volunteer Service Award Recipients鈥� SJC Alumni

Volunteer Service Awards (VSA) are given for many different types of service, such as special accomplishment in the Class Chair Program, completion of Board service, a particularly successful fundraising or other new engagement effort, or other volunteer efforts. VSAs honor innovative, forward-looking, or extraordinary service.

To submit a name for Volunteer Service Award nomination consideration, please submit the Award Nomination Form.

2025

College History Task Force’s Steering Committee

Adrian Trevisan (A84), Chair
Salomon Cordova (SF21)
Steve Crockett (Tutor)
Howard Fisher (Tutor)
Stephanie Harris (A24)
Claudia Hauer (Tutor)
Ella Hutchinson (A25)
Jordan Klein (GI24)
Emily Murphy (A95)
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman (A25)
Zion Peart (A21)
George Russell (Tutor)
Jennifer Sprague (GI04, EC09)

The members of the College History Task Force’s Steering Committee (see list) are recommended for the Volunteer Service Awards for their work overseeing the Task Force project over the first four years of its existence, contributing over 700 hours of volunteer work. When the chair of the BVG asked Adrian Trevisan to investigate the college’s relationship with history, he knew that since it affected the entire college community, it needed to be led by representative members of that community. Adrian contacted the two deans and the heads of the two campuses’ staff councils for recommendations, and found two tutors, two staff members, and two students who happily volunteered to share the work with me. He also asked for a volunteer from the Alumni Association leadership, and tracked down the alum who had written the most recent (1995) history of the college; both quickly agreed to join as well. Together, the nine members of the steering committee met every other Sunday for 1.5 hours, with additional ad hoc meetings to talk to other colleges, independent historians, and interested individuals. The Deans provided six work-study students for two years (three for each campus) to scan and transcribe the college’s archives.

In July 2020, the St. John’s College History Task Force was tasked with researching the college’s past in order to understand its relationship to indigenous and enslaved people, and to make recommendations to the board on how that history should be acknowledged. Although most of this history took place in Annapolis, as the Santa Fe campus was established more than 250 years after the college was founded, this is not the history of one campus or the other, but the history of the college. Reflecting this, the Steering Committee of the Task Force has representation of all the roles that make up the college community.

In February 2025, the College History Task Force provided their final report to the board on how to acknowledge the institution’s history and association with slavery. The task force’s recommendations, which will be taken under advisement by the presidents and implemented where funding is available, include: 1) expanding historical information on the website, reprinting historical books and articles, and including a short overview in freshman orientation; 2) partnering with community organizations in Annapolis to increase the amount of academic support and community service opportunities for students; 3) developing additional campus signage and self-guided walking tours; 4) including college history in the New Program via lectures, preceptorials, faculty seminars, and student discussions; 5) establishing an annual lecture on democratic citizenship and different legal topics; and 6) considering a second phase to research other historical topics identified by the task force but not included in this phase and applying for grant money to fund this research. Following this set of recommendations, the work of the task force is considered complete.

Report found here: /application/files/8417/3073/8120/College-History-Task-Force-Report-2024.pdf

2024

Brian Becker (GI08)

Brian Becker founded Becker Growth Strategy which consults small to medium businesses on how to scale effectively and intentionally. From 2018-2020, he served as the Entrepreneur in Residence and the Director of Small Business Outreach at the Catholic University of America. Brian contributes this extensive experience in business consulting to volunteer for St. John’s College, supporting the work of the Office of Career Development in Annapolis. Over many years, Brian has provided career advice to students - participating in GI alumni career panels, and most recently helping renew CELA, the Center for Entrepreneurship in the Liberal Arts. Brian helped organize events such as recent panels on "Leveraging a Liberal Arts Education as an Entrepreneur" and "AI and the Future of Liberal Arts Education". Helping students as a volunteer and professionally, Brian teaches full-time for the English Department at St. Mary’s High School in Annapolis. We are honored to recognize Brian for his exemplary dedication and commitment to the college’s students with the Alumni Association Volunteer Award.

Leslie Kay (SF83)

Leslie Kay has been an exemplary volunteer, tirelessly contributing her time and expertise to the college, in multiple capacities. Leslie served the maximum two terms as an alumni-elected member of the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors, where she chaired the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force - the first effort of its kind by the college. Her work overseeing this momentous BVG initiative has resulted in an historic report on issues of diversity and inclusion at St. John’s, and concrete advancements in creating a community of belonging at the college. In addition, throughout her service on the BVG, Leslie added a valuable "faculty perspective" as a professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, and Deputy Dean for Research in the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago. Leslie has trained dozens of students in her laboratory at the University of Chicago, many of them St. John’s Hodson and Ariel summer interns. Leslie has contributed to the college her talent for teaching - lecturing at St. John’s and teaching courses for its Summer Classics program. In recognition of Leslie’s dedication and leadership and her tremendous contributions of time, talent, and treasure to St. John’s College and the community, we are honored to present her with the Alumni Association Volunteer Service Award.

Steven M. Virgil (A88)

Steve Virgil lives in Winston Salem NC with his spouse, Sheila Monen Virgil (A88), where he is a professor at Wake Forest University School of Law. During 2023 he designed a new Masters in Public Administration degree program for Wake Forest. His work has been recognized by the U.S. Dept of Commerce and the White House. Drawing from his extensive experience developing and directing several clinical education programs in the areas of community economic development, trade and corporate law, Steve initiated CELA, the Center for Entrepreneurship and the Liberal Arts, at St. John’s in 2018. Steve worked with the Office of Career Development in Annapolis to develop CELA which provides St. John’s students with the foundation and background to create their own businesses. In recognition of his work to establish the Center for Entrepreneurship and the Liberal Arts at St. John’s, we honor Steve Virgil with the Alumni Association Volunteer Service Award.

2023

George Dolan (SF92)

For hosting and volunteering for the Association’s Award of Merit luncheon and his work on restarting the Alumni Association’s Washington, D.C. chapter. Mr. Dolan is a Captain in the United States Navy.

Carla Echevarria (A97)

For leading a seminar on Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (Ch. 2) and Linda Nochlin, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists as part of the Alumni Association's Summer Conversation Series Pilot Program: Engaging the Ethical, Legal, and Aesthetic Dimensions of Inclusion. This Alumni Association summer seminar series brought together a diverse group of alumni and current students to examine the meaning of inclusion through Program and Program-related works. Ms. Echevarria is a Senior UX (User Experience) Design Manager at Google (NYC), and also a Professor of Graphic Design and Advertising at the School of Visual Arts (NYC).

Salvatore Scibona (SF97)

For volunteer work for college admissions, serving for over a decade as one of the college’s main ambassadors for prospective students interested in writing careers. In 2011, his article, “Where I Learned to Read,” about his education at St. John’s was published in The New Yorker and has encouraged countless Johnnies to join our community of learners. His first novel, published as The End (2008), was a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Young Lions Fiction Award from the New York Public Library. Mr. Scibona is the director of The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.

Juan Villaseñor (A97)

For leading a seminar on the United States Supreme Court decision Bostock v. Clayton County for the Alumni Association's Summer Conversation Series Pilot Program: Engaging the Ethical, Legal, and Aesthetic Dimensions of Inclusion. This Alumni Association summer seminar series brought together a diverse group of alumni and current students to examine the meaning of inclusion through Program and Program-related works. Judge Villaseñor is a Colorado state district judge and was appointed to the District Court bench in 2018. Judge Villaseñor received his law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 2001. Prior to his appointment, he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado.

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