Awards

This award honors exemplary leaders who have inspired the service-learning field, positively impacting the lives of young people, and motivating others to take up the banner of service. This award recognizes an individual whose life has had a distinctive impact on service-learning. The recipient of the award personifies leadership, courage, creativity, and compassion — values Dickson felt characterized people he most respected.

About Alec Dickson
As a British journalist in Central Europe, Dickson witnessed Hitler’s rise to power during the 1930s. He became involved in refugee relief shortly after the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia, and served in Africa with British troops during World War II. Following the war, he spent 15 years in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, training indigenous youth to serve as community leaders. Together with his wife Maura, Dickson founded Voluntary Service Overseas, which sent recent college and secondary school graduates to work in developing countries. The success of the VSO garnered attention from the Kennedy administration, which brought Dickson in to consult on the creation of the Peace Corps. His compelling vision continues through the lives of the countless people motivated and inspired by his life, his words, and the many programs he influenced.