Reaching Out Across Borders, Local Leadership Earn Senior UC's "C-Ring" Award Date: May 9, 2000 By: Marianne Kunnen-Jones Phone: (513) 556-1826 Archive: General News A University of Cincinnati senior who has worked on behalf of debt-ridden nations and hopes to continue to work for the economic self-sustainability of African nations is the winner of University of Cincinnati's top award for a graduating female. Sarah Smiley, a geography major in the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, was named the winner of the C-Ring Award at a special first-ever C-Ring banquet Saturday evening, May 6, at the Kingsgate Conference Center. The banquet was sponsored by the UC Women's Center and the Division of Student Affairs and Human Resources to help increase campus awareness of the annual award and to encourage future nominations. Smiley will also be honored at the University Recognition Ceremony, along with other UC students receiving awards, on Sunday, May 21. Smiley is a former intern and assistant to the policy adviser at Oxfam America Global Advocacy Office in Washington, D.C. There, she researched, prepared and distributed information to aid in cancellation of debt in poor nations and assisted in planning an International Financial Institution Strategy Workshop. "In many of these poorer nations, especially in Africa, they are paying their debt and not able to put any money into education or health. The women and children are suffering. I want this debt to be forgiven," said Smiley. This year's C-Ring winner has also served as the president of the Geography Club, has held community service offices in UC's Greek organizations and has a 3.88 GPA. She also has worked as an editor in a part-time position with the Center for Electronic Text in the Law at the UC College of Law, preparing human rights documents to be displayed on the World Wide Web and a CD-ROM with orientation materials for distribution to incoming law students. Her campus activities include Sigma Phi Women's Honorary (vice president); Alpha Phi Omega, a national service fraternity; the Honors Scholars Program (ambassador); Chi Omega Sorority (community service director and rush party chair); ACTIVUS (editor); Greek Week (philanthropy chair); and Order of Omega (Greek Honorary- Philanthrophy chair). Her community involvement includes volunteering at the Corryville Resource Center, where her sorority holds annual haunted houses and in 1999 she organized the sorority's first Easter egg hunt for the kids attending the center; volunteering for People Working Cooperatively fix-it days for the past four years; walking in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life; organizing a food drive during Greek Week to benefit For AIDS Children Everywhere (FACE); helping to brighten the environment for the physically and mentally handicapped residents of the Fairfield Center, where she puts up decorations for the holidays; and membership in Jubilee 2000, a debt relief group based in Washington, D.C. Smiley is a native of Louisville, Ky., and was raised in Lexington. She is a graduate of Tates Creek High School. Her C-Ring Award, which has been awarded at UC each year since 1922, includes a ring with a gold "C" for "Cincinnati" embossed in black onyx. Winners must be nominated by faculty or staff of UC and are selected on the basis of scholarship, campus leadership, service to the Cincinnati community, advocacy for women and personal development.