The Loras College Social Work Program announced that Krystina Kaminski (’20) is recipient of the 2020 Jane Addams Award as voted by her peers.
A Chicago native, Kaminski is graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in social work. She holds leadership positions in a number of different organizations on campus, including president of the Loras Alliance, co-president of the Social Work Council, diversity chair for the Student Union, treasurer of Delta Epsilon Sigma and is a member of the Guild of St. Genesius.
“Krystyna lives and breathes social justice and advocacy through her work on the Diversity committee, Social Work Council, and as President of The Alliance,” Michelle Bechen, L.M.S.W., associate professor of social work, said. “As Jane Addams once said, “The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.”
The Jane Addams award is given to an outstanding senior who is involved in actively ameliorating unjust practices; a student who goes above and beyond the classroom expectations; is involved in volunteer activities on and off campus; demonstrates professional and ethical responsibility, and works towards a vision of the future through policy change or formation.
The award commemorates the life and work of Jane Addams, generally considered to be the mother of social work. Born in Cedarville, Illinois, on September 6, 1860 and graduated from Rockford College in 1882, Jane Addams established the world famous social settlement Hull House and the American settlement movement in 1889 after an inspiring visit to Toynbee Hall in London. From Hull House where she lived and worked until her death in 1935, Jane Addams built her reputation as the country’s most prominent woman through her writing, her settlement work, and her international efforts for world peace.
An outspoken activist, Addams led the charge for social change through political reform and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 for her pacifist work during World War I.
