Victoria Chee ’13, a Leadership in Medicine student who
coordinates Campus Kitchens and is active with the Presidential Interfaith Campus Challenge, has been named a “Future Stakeholder” by the Stakeholders, an Albany-based not-for-profit that inspires people to take positive action in their communities.
She is among 10 winners of the group’s 2013 GOBY Awards (Get on Board Volunteer Awards), which recognizes companies, organizations and individuals who have provided exemplary volunteer services.
“Tori has emerged as a true campus leader,” said Art History Professor Lorraine Morales Cox, who nominated Chee for the award. She got to know Chee last fall, when a core group of faculty, staff and students mobilized to collect donations for Hurricane Sandy.
“What is really amazing about Tori is her excellent ability to build coalitions of people and build bridges between diverse groups who share a vision in addressing a need in the community.” She is, Cox added, “someone who clearly wins the admiration of everyone around her yet does so in a very humble, ‘behind the scenes’ kind of way.”
A native of Little Neck, N.Y., Chee is an interdepartmental major in biology and Asian studies, with aspirations of working in international health care and health care policy.
Much of her campus volunteerism has addressed issues of poverty and hunger.
She has been involved in the Union chapter of the national Campus Kitchens organization since its inception three years ago. As director, she streamlined the method of organizing weekly shifts of students who cook food for the City Mission and also implemented a summer program. Last November, she organized the Campus Kitchens Thanksgiving “Turkey Palooza.”
“Not only does she want Union students to serve food to the hungry, but she also wants students to learn from the community members during meal time, something implemented under her leadership,” said Angela Tatem, director of the Kenney Community Center.
In other volunteer and leadership roles, Chee is vice president of philanthropy and programming at Omicron Delta Kappa, the national leadership honor society, and philanthropy chair of Alpha Delta Lambda, the community service sorority.
She is a member of the Empty Bowls planning committee, the Leadership in Diversity Council, LGBTQ Allies and the Garnet Society, the student Alumni Association.
She has also volunteered at the Community Hospice of Schenectady and worked at a rural clinic in Cusco, Peru. Last year, on an independent study in Taiwan, China and Hong Kong, she researched comparative health systems between Taiwan and the United States and studied with practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine.
The GOBY Awards will be presented Tuesday, March 5, at the GE Theatre at Proctors, Schenectady. The Stakeholders, Inc. is a New York State Regional Volunteer Center for an eight-county region and an affiliate of the National Points of Light Institute. It was founded by Catherine Hedgeman '96.