Harvard Divinity School

Alumni/ae Relations

Awards

The First Decade Award  |  The Rabbi Martin Katzenstein Award | The Preston N. Williams Black Alumni/ae Award

Each year, the Harvard Divinity School Alumni/ae Association recognizes three outstanding alumni/ae for their service to the world. Together, the three honors showcase the mission of Harvard Divinity School and illustrate the importance of utilizing religious education to serve and benefit others.

Each fall, the Alumni/ae Association issues an open call for nominations. Recipients are announced the following spring, and awards are presented at the spring meeting of the Black Alumni/ae Network and at the Alumni/ae Dinner in June.

Nominations

To nominate an individual for an alumni/ae award, please send an email to alums@hds.harvard.edu with the following information:

Information about the nominee:

• Name
• Class year and degree
• Contact information (telephone number, email address, postal address)
• One-paragraph overview of biographical, career, and civic accomplishments
• One paragraph supporting the nomination
• Award for which the person is being nominated

Information about the submitter:

• Name 
• Class year and degree
• Contact information (telephone number, email address, postal address)

Additional supporting materials, such as a CV, letters of reference, or news clips are also accepted. Please mail these items to Leila Kohler-Frueh, Office of Development and External Relations, Harvard Divinity School, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Note that nominations for the First Decade, Katzenstein, and Williams awards must be received by November 15 to be considered for awards given at the following Alumni/ae Dinner in June.

The First Decade Award
The First Decade Award was established in 1989 by the Harvard Divinity School Alumni/ae Council. This award was designed to recognize an HDS graduate from the past ten years whose professional pursuits have demonstrated the values and skills developed at the Divinity School, and who is an inspiration and encouragement to all graduates to rededicate themselves to the values, hopes, and visions that led them to study at HDS and launched them into their service since. It is awarded to one whose vocation confirms the hope that God is present as justice, peace, and beauty, and whose achievement inspires striving for truth, compassion, and service.

Past recipients of the First Decade Award

The Rabbi Martin Katzenstein Award
The Rabbi Martin Katzenstein Award was established in 1979 by the Harvard Divinity School Alumni/ae Association to honor among its graduates one who exhibits a passionate and helpful interest in the lives of other people, an informed and realistic faithfulness, an embodiment of the idea that love is not so much a way of feeling as a way of acting, and a reliable sense of humor. The award is named for Rabbi Martin Katzenstein, ThM '58 who was associated with HDS for many years and was Acting Dean of Students when he passed away in 1970.

Past recipients of the Rabbi Martin Katzenstein Award

The Preston N. Williams Black Alumni/ae Award
The Preston N. Williams Black Alumni/ae Award, established in 2002, honors one who has demonstrated a concern with the religious experience of the African diaspora, evinced by his/her study, instruction, and general body of work. Additionally, recipients have demonstrated a commitment to scholarship at Harvard Divinity School, and have been an inspirational model of brotherhood and sisterhood by empowering others in the pursuit of truth and justice through unfailing support of students, faculty, alumni/ae, and staff.

Past recipients of the Preston N. Williams Black Alumni/ae Award

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