Bellevue College student Zafar Haq, of Bellevue, has won the national Two-Year College Student Achievement Award for 2010 from the Cooperative Education and Internship Association (CEIA).
Haq will receive the award, which includes a $500 stipend, at the CEIA’s national conference in Boston next month.
CEIA’s Two-year College Student Achievement Award recognizes the most outstanding student participant in a two-year college cooperative education or internship program in the prior year.
Haq is being honored for his service as a Bellevue College Rotaract Nepal/USA Disability Awareness Campaign Intern in 2009.
In that position, Haq and five other interns journeyed to Nepal for 10 days to learn about the physical, social and financial challenges faced by local residents with disabilities.
After returning from Nepal, Haq and his fellow interns implemented a series of service projects and events to raise disability awareness – including a campuswide event called The Ability Experience, which gave students, faculty and staff the opportunity to experience some of what it means to live with a disability.
Haq also initiated a fund-raising campaign to buy wheelchairs for one of the agencies his delegation visited in Nepal. Two wheelchairs have been donated so far.
Haq’s other community involvements extend well beyond the Bellevue College campus. He currently serves as a national director for a mentoring program for young Muslim men and works as an assistant organizer for Meetup.com, for which he has coordinated Habitat for Humanity and Adopt-a-Highway projects, among many others. He also has performed volunteer work at Evergreen Hospital and the Seattle University Center for Service.
Haq already holds an associate in arts and sciences degree from Bellevue College and will receive a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Washington in June. He is continuing at Bellevue College to continue his preparation for medical school, with the ultimate goal of improving access to medical care in underserved areas of the world.
