Becoming wise and compassionate citizens of the world is part of the educational experience at The Bright School. The school established an award last year to honor young alumni who are leaders in service to others.
The Class of 2018 presented the Citizen of the World Award at the Fifth Grade Recognition Assembly to Ben Workinger ’10, who is a senior at Baylor School.
The Citizen of the World Award recognizes young alumni who are fulfilling the school's mission: "The Bright School builds a foundation upon which students become wise and compassionate citizens of the world. Its century of progress fosters the intellectual, artistic, physical, and moral growth of young boys and girls." To be eligible for the award, alumni must be current students in high school, college or graduate school. Winning alumni demonstrate leadership in service to others in the broader community.
Parents, teachers and alumni sent in nominations for the award. After the nominations were received, fifth graders met with Head of School O.J. Morgan to discuss the award criteria and review the qualifications of each nominee.
From the nomination: “Ben is interested in science and technology and works in those areas to find ways that will help other people. He served on the Chattanooga Mayor’s Youth Council Project, encouraging women to follow STEM careers and produced a video that highlighted women in those fields and presented it to local middle and high school students. In Baylor’s after school STEAM program, Ben tested a solar water distiller to see if it could remove heavy metals and harmful bacteria. He spent his 18th birthday helping hurricane recovery efforts on the Caribbean island of Dominica. Ben’s family has been involved for several years in bringing drinkable water systems to the region, and they traveled there after the hurricane. Ben installed two water purification systems at the hospital and power company.”
Other nominees were:
Grace Brody ’12
Pierson Brown ’11
Allen Liu ’11
Grace McKenney ’11
Meher Memon ’11
