By Bernie DeGroat
News and Information Services
Three U-M undergraduates have received the General Motors Volunteer Spirit Award for community service.
Reed P. Bingaman, Michael K. Dorsey and Sabina Lim were honored in a ceremony held last week at the Michigan Union. Each received five shares of General Motors common stock and a plaque presented by President James J. Duderstadt and John O. Grettenberger, general manager of the Cadillac Motor Car Division and vice president of General Motors Corp.
Bingaman, a senior majoring in economics and communication, is a resident adviser at Bursley Hall. He helps coordinate Helping Hands for the Homeless, a group of Bursley students who volunteer at a local homeless shelter and donate funds from collectible bottles and cans to the Shelter Association of Ann Arbor.
Dorsey, a senior majoring in environmental policy, served as a U.S. delegate to the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) and was the U.S. coordinator for the UNCED Youth Summit.
Lim, a junior, is a pre-med student majoring in biology. She is a member of the Future Physicians for Social Responsibility, volunteers to play with cardiac patients at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, and has served as an elementary school teacher’s aide. Last year, she took part in the Appalachia Service Trip during spring break, in which she helped repair a home for a family living in an underdeveloped region of Pennsylvania.
“What these recipients have done extends well beyond any definition of volunteerism,” Grettenberger said. “The commitment, the dedication and the devotion that’s required is a signal to all of us.”
Duderstadt noted that community service has always played an important role at the U-M.
“Education at the University occurs in a variety of different ways—through formal mechanisms in the classroom, libraries and laboratories,” he said. “But it also occurs through community activities in which students reach out beyond their own individual objectives to some broader elements of our society.
“This kind of leadership, demonstrating a willingness to serve others and, to some degree, to change the world, is the spirit of Michigan as we strive to have an impact on the society that we serve,” the president added.
Award recipients were selected by a committee of U-M students, administrators, faculty and staff.
General Motors created the Volunteer Spirit Award in 1987 to acknowledge and support the volunteer efforts of students at colleges and universities across the country. The Student Organization Development Center worked with GM to coordinate the U-M awards program.
