Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award Winners Honored

Sherryl Broverman, a biology and global health associate professor of the practice at Duke, has established a non-governmental organization that offers a secondary school for impoverished girls and AIDS orphans in Muhuru Bay, Kenya.  

Duke senior Quinn Holmquist spent four years volunteering in Durham by helping individuals facing homelessness and poverty find local resources and gain financial freedom, engaging with the youth at his church, and connecting with teens and adults with developmental disabilities.

Broverman and Holmquist are recipients of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, which recognizes one graduating senior and one member of the faculty, staff or graduate student body of Duke University and Duke University Health System for outstanding commitment to service.

Broverman and Holmquist were honored during an awards ceremony in the Allen Building on Wednesday. They received a framed certificate and medallion from Provost Sally Kornbluth.

The New York Southern Society established the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Awards in 1925 in memory of Sullivan, a southerner who became a prominent lawyer, businessman and philanthropist in New York in the late nineteenth century. The award seeks to perpetuate the excellence of character and humanitarian service of Sullivan by recognizing and honoring such qualities in others.

“This award is presented to individuals who exhibit Mr. Sullivan’s qualities of selflessness, service, character, integrity and depth of spirituality,” Kornbluth said during the ceremony. “I’m delighted to have presented the awards to you all, and congratulations and thank you for all your contributions.”

Broverman, the associate professor of the practice, is taking a dozen DukeEngage students to Kenya on May 16 to visit her organization, WISER. She created the organization in 2007 after working with a university in Kenya to develop the first mandatory HIV/AIDS class, and during her work there, she began to realize how young women in Muhuru Bay were affected by arranged marriages, the AIDS crisis, and lack of educational support.

WISER, which regularly hosts Duke students and researchers, works to improve women’s health, reduce gender gaps in education, and empower young women to become leaders.

Duke senior Zack Fowler has traveled to Muhuru Bay twice with Broverman, and he wrote in the award nomination, “Dr. Broverman has been a mentor, a philanthropist, a social actor, a courageous example of persistence, and a dearly loved guide through which I better understand the world.”

Broverman said she is flattered that one of her students nominated her for the award. She said this is an exciting time for WISER because it is doubling the number of girls benefitting from WISER’s health, education and economic programs, from 120 to 240.

“We spend so much of our time as faculty writing about our students, so it was an interesting twist to have a student write about one of us or write about me,” she said. “It’s also important to me as a biology professor to show students the connections between science, human rights and humanitarianism, which they don’t often consider.”

Holmquist, the student award recipient who majored in Romance Studies at Duke, has volunteered with the Community Empowerment Fund to help members achieve goals such as retaining a living wage job, figuring out child care, buying a car, and navigating legal services. He also volunteers through his church, CityWell, and at Families Moving Forward, formerly known as Genesis Home, which offers temporary housing to Durham families with children. In addition, he works with Reality Ministries, a nonprofit that provides learning and social opportunities and outings to teens and adults with developmental disabilities.

“It is clear that Quinn is a trusted friend and confidant, and the first source of support to whom his members turn when circumstances arise,” wrote Janet Xiao, a Duke alumna and Durham program coordinator for the Community Empowerment Fund, in the nomination.

Holmquist said he is going to continue to live in Durham after graduation. He has accepted a year-long fellowship at Reality Ministries, where he has volunteered since his freshman year.

“I feel like a citizen of Durham sometimes more than a student at Duke,” he said. “I’m going to stay in this community. The award is an affirmation of the ways that I’ve been engaged in Durham and encourages me to continue doing that after I stay in Durham.”