2024 Lund Awards recognize dedication to community

Two members of the Clark community have been awarded the 2024 John W. Lund Community Achievement Award for their significant contributions to the Worcester community. Doctoral student Tiana “Tee” Freeman and Professor Shelly Tenenbaum were honored by President David Fithian for their dedication to serving and uplifting marginalized and underserved populations.

Freeman, a fifth-year doctoral student in social psychology, is the design and lead program facilitator of the Worcester YWCA Transformation Program, the first youth program for Black girls in Worcester. Psychology Professor Nicole Overstreet and Geography Professor Asha Best, in nominating Freeman for the Lund Award, praised her use of applied research to build a toolkit for creating networks of care and support for vulnerable populations. Freeman “is deeply dedicated to empowering the girls who are a part of this program, and enabling them to thrive outside of it,” they wrote.

Freeman previously served as the crisis response coordinator at Legendary Legacies, a Worcester nonprofit that helps young men ages 17-24 develop the skills necessary to become productive citizens and maximize their potential. This work led Jennifer Safford-Farquharson, an instructor in the Department of Sustainability and Social Justice and director of the Youth Worker Training Institute (YWTI), to invite Freeman to develop and implement a training module at the YWTI, which is a collaboration between Clark and Worcester community agencies.

“Tee is an exemplary liaison between Clark University and the Worcester community,” Safford-Farquharson added. “The participatory methods, level of integration, relationship-building for understanding, and the full commitment she displays is unlike anything I have seen in my 27 years of full-time community work within the city of Worcester.”

In a LinkedIn post, Freeman expressed her appreciation for the Lund Award. “Though this was an individual award, it was a community effort,” she wrote. “I appreciate all the amazing folks who contributed to the vision and mission of creating spaces and opportunities for Black girls in Worcester.”

Tenenbaum was recognized for her contributions to solutions that help break the cycle of incarceration and recidivism in the Greater Worcester community. She is co-director of the Liberal Arts for Returning Citizens (LARC) program at Clark, a tuition-free college credit program for formerly incarcerated individuals. She also teaches in the Emerson Prison Initiative, a college-in-prison program, and advises Clark’s chapter of Petey Green, a national organization that trains students to be volunteer tutors in prison education programs.

Tenenbaum also represents Clark on the Massachusetts Prison Education Consortium.

“Teaching in prison is really about the transformative power of ideas, confronting very serious ethical questions, grappling with morality, debates, and different perspectives,” Tenenbaum said in 2023 on Clark’s “Challenge. Change.” podcast.

Read “I can see beyond the wall” from the spring/summer 2020 issue of Clark magazine »

“Your leadership and commitment to those who are trapped in the cycle of incarceration and recidivism is exemplary,” Fithian said in presenting Tenenbaum with the Lund Award. “Your validating work makes access to a college education for formerly incarcerated people possible by removing barriers, pursuing resources, and crafting conditions to support success. Your tireless efforts help many marginalized people write new chapters for themselves. You exemplify Jack Lund’s vision for this award with your dedication, talent, and compassion that has resulted in positive change for the Worcester community.”

The annual John W. Lund Community Achievement Award, first presented in 1994, recognizes faculty, students, and staff whose leadership has made an impact on the surrounding Worcester community. The award, which includes a $2,560 cash prize for each recipient, is the result of a generous gift to the Greater Worcester Community Foundation by the late Jack Lund, a retired chief executive officer of the S&S Paper Company and the New England Envelope Manufacturing Company. Lund had been a generous supporter of Clark University and an active member of the Friends of the Goddard Library, and he had audited classes at Clark for more than 20 years.