Honorable Mention Winner
Yasmine Taeb
University of Florida
Senior in Political Science
3.3 GPA

Community service and University of Florida’s Yasmine Taeb are as inseparable as pizza and students—she’s already completed 900 service hours.

Where did the surge in service start? For Taeb, 23, it started where many aspects of college life start—in the dorms. She became the community service liason for the Broward Area Council in fall 1999 and she got BAC involved in Walk America in which the residence hall raised $600 for the March of Dimes.  For this, she was selected by the Inter Residence Hall Association as the "RA Of the Month” winner in March of 2000.

The following year, Taeb joined the student senate and co-founded and became president of Gators 4 Humanity while still maintaining volunteer hours at the Red Cross.  Taeb helped initiate UF’s Student Organization Charity Drives of Spring 2001, involving more than three dozen student groups, and coordinated relief efforts for the victims of Sept. 11 with Gators 4 Humanity. Her efforts earned her recognition as a “US Ambassador of Good Will” by the Life for Relief and Development organization.  Later, she was chosen as part of the first student-led humanitarian delegation to Iraq.

“While Taeb has been honored on several occasions with awards, scholarships, and accolades, she’s never once lost sight of her deepest motivation and conviction—service to others,” says Lucinda Poudrier-Aaronson, assistant director of housing for residential life.

Taeb continuously worked to open communication on campus between the Muslim and Jewish communities of Gainesville by coordinating interfaith dialogues and dinners along with events like the “Peace and Unity Walk” and the “Women In Religion Panel”. Taeb also took it upon herself to get the message of peace and tolerance out to the Gainesville community by writing guest columns for UF’s student newspaper, The Independent Florida Alligator. She also participated in the first “Sukkot Survivor” program sponsored by the Jewish Student Union during the fall of 2000 in which students from different backgrounds worked together while competing for a grand prize trip to London. The “survivors” earned points by participating in events focused on promoting peace among different religions, spreading awareness of the Sukkot holiday, and community services such as a canned food drive and collecting hats for cancer patients.

Taeb won the competition and the trip to London because her efforts to create peace and understanding between different cultures showed the characteristics of a true survivor. “I decided to participate in the JSU program because I wanted to convey a message of unity and peace to my fellow peers,” Taeb says.

Throughout the academic year, Taeb pays for school mostly through scholarships, but also supports herself with personal savings, part-time jobs, financial aid, and student loans. -BF

Contact Taeb at yastae@yahoo.com.