![\"Stephen](\"http:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/urbanski-honduras-piggy-back.jpg\" "\\"urbanski-honduras-piggy-back\\"")
<\/a>Stephen Urbanski posed for a photo with one of the children he met while on a mission trip to Honduras.<\/p><\/div>Stephen Urbanski, a senior majoring in education administration at The University of Toledo, was the February 2011 Jefferson Awards honoree in recognition of his volunteer work on and off campus.<\/p>\n
During his four years at UT, Urbanski has participated in Relay for Life, Toys for Tots, Dance Marathon, Adopt a Highway and Strike Out Hunger. He walked for 18 hours to help find a cure for cancer, cleaned up trash along the Toledo highways, donated toys to the Toledo Children\u2019s Hospital, and danced for muscular dystrophy. <\/p>\n
In 2008, Urbanski took on the role of philanthropy chair for his fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon. During that time, he organized Strike Out Hunger, which raised more than $2,000 to sponsor a child in Honduras.<\/p>\n
In the summer prior to coordinating Strike Out Hunger, he went on a mission trip to Honduras, where he spent 10 days digging a ditch for a new water line, painted houses, and built a fence. <\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough the trip was very rewarding, the thing I remember most is interacting with the kids,\u201d Urbanski said.<\/p>\n
This mission trip was his second; the first trip he took was during high school in summer 2006 when he went to an economically distressed area of the Appalachian Mountains. <\/p>\n
\u201cVolunteering allows me to see what other parts of the world are like. You can\u2019t put a price tag on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Urbanski plans to work in a school environment, starting off as a high school math teacher and eventually working his way to principal, which would allow him to have the summers off to volunteer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think more people would volunteer if they had the time and money,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m fortunate that I have both to offer someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that the faculty and staff at his high school, St. Francis de Sales, instilled in him the need and will to volunteer.<\/p>\n
Urbanski said he was honored to receive the Jefferson Award.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was shocked,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are so many people at UT that have done a lot, so for me to be recognized is awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you know of an unsung hero who dedicates his or her time to volunteering and community service, be sure to submit a nomination for the Jefferson Awards. Go to utoledo.edu\/jeffersonaward <\/a>or on Facebook at facebook.com\/utjeffersonawards<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read about UT senior Stephen Urbanski, the February Jefferson Award honoree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":325,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10796"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}