The Lena Landegger Community Service Awards

To commemorate the memory of Lena Landegger (H’87), the Landegger Charitable Foundation has made a generous gift to Georgetown University for the purpose of honoring and rewarding Georgetown undergraduates for distinguished contributions to community service. Each year, twenty students will be selected to receive the award. The Lena Landegger Community Service Awards provide a remarkable occasion for Georgetown to celebrate and honor its deep commitment to community service.

Since 1995, the Lena Landegger Service Awards have annually recognized Georgetown students who demonstrate consistent, exemplary community service as Hoyas. Students on the Hilltop are steeped in awareness of the Ignatian ideal of being “people for others”. Lena Landegger, for whom these awards are named, interpreted this ideal by living a life grounded in direct service, with compassion as her compass, and was unabashedly committed to creating a more just world. 

Service takes many forms, and in the past three decades, Lena Landegger Awardees have often met a specific moment. Their work has taken many forms and addressed urgent local, national, and global injustices, such as: housing and food insecurity; legal and programmatic support for immigrants; gender-based violence; the impact of incarceration on families and communities; the aftermath of the Iraq and Afghan wars; and many others. The Lena Landegger Awards committee seeks examples of bold service and applicants who have thought creatively and courageously about how to create a positive lasting impact on an individual, a community, or an organization.

“In Jesuit education, service is not just about helping, but about learning. As we help someone in need, we hopefully learn from them in a way that builds friendship. In Catholic social teaching, we call this solidarity – the recognition that we are all children of God, that we all have needs and that we all have something to give and to learn from one another.”
– Rev. Kevin O’Brien, S.J. 2012 Landegger Awards Ceremony

Questions? Email landeggerserviceawards@georgetown.edu