Rose Helen Keller Earns CLASS's Highest Honor

6/4/2007 [press release]
  
International Studies major Rose Keller has won this year’s Lindley Award, presented each year to the graduating senior in the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences who has displayed outstanding scholarship, character, leadership, and breadth of service. The award was named for distinguished alumnus Ernest K. Lindley, who established the award in 1962 as a memorial to his parents, Ernest Hiram and Elizabeth Kidder Lindley. Ernest Hiram Lindley was President of the University of Idaho from 1917 to 1920. The recipient is chosen from a pool of nominees submitted by Department Chairs and faculty within the College. Keller was born in Orofino, Idaho, and moved to Burns, Oregon, with her parents when she was four. She graduated from Burns High School in 2003 as valedictorian of her class. She graduated in May 2007 cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies, a minor in Economics and the University of Idaho Honors Certificate. Her many awards and honors include Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Gamma, and Golden Key honor societies; the Alumni Award for Excellence; the ASUI Outstanding Senior Award and Outstanding Junior in the WSU Russian Program; the Presidential Scholarship, and the Boyd and Grace Martin Memorial Scholarship. Passionate about environmental stewardship and community service, Rose was the founding director of the University of Idaho’s Sustainability Center, where she was the main liaison with the UI administration, ASUI student government, and the Moscow community regarding all programs and activities sponsored by the center. She has participated in humanitarian efforts on campus including the Academic War on Hunger, the Oxfam Hunger Banquet, Martin Forums and numerous fundraisers for humanitarian aid efforts. Rose was an active member of FLAME, the Feminist Led Activist Movement to Empower and of the Borah Symposium Planning Committee. A summer internship as assistant to the Government Relations Director for the Nature Conservancy in Portland, Oregon, advanced her knowledge of environmental policy. In 2005 Rose studied at the University of Joensuu in Joensuu, Finland, and she plans to return to Finland to continue her research on a macro-level impact analysis on North Karelian economy, social structures, and environmental development influenced by differing Finnish and Russian environmental policies. Her research will be collaborative work through the University of Josensuu and the Helsinki School of Economics in Finland and Petrozodvosk University in Karelia, Russia. One of her professors writes, “She is well-prepared for her graduate studies and is sure to be influential in the international development community. I have no doubt she will be an impeccable representative amongst University of Idaho alumni throughout her life.”