Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Week

Each year, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Service Awards are presented to University of Massachusetts-Lowell faculty, staff, students, and community leaders. These awards honor the contributions of individuals who have demonstrated a high level of commitment to social change, service, and community engagement.

Nominees should exemplify the dream, vision and work of late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

MLK 2020 Theme: All Labor has Dignity: Celebrating 125 Years of Labor and History at UMass Lowell

For more information, please email us by email: Multicultural_Affairs@uml.edu.

"No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence" – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

MLK 2020 - Distinguished Service Awards

Faculty/Staff: Sabrina Noel Feldeisen, Ph.D., R.D.

Sabrina's service was different because she takes the time to build a supportive community that will successfully carry out necessary research initiatives to improve the health of the local and national population. She built a team of community leaders from Lowell, and faculty and students from both UML and the University of New Hampshire to lead ground breaking research that will enhance the potential for successful community programming to increase access to healthful foods and reduce stress among Cambodian adults living in Lowell. Her research project attracted attention from the UML Office of Sustainability in studying perceptions of adults using local farmers markets. These small, ancillary studies will build local collaborations that will create culturally-relevant farmers markets in Lowell, providing fresh, healthy foods to underserved communities and bolster local business. The research initiatives the nominee directs have led to numerous new jobs that she makes sure are available to people within the community. In this way, the community members are hired for work done and everyone feels a true sense of partnership to better the world around them.

Student: Marbella Leal 

Marbella has contributed at Lowell Transitional Living Center (LTLC) and the Partner in Achievement for Lowell Students (PALS) mentoring program at Lowell High School. In Fall 2019, she pursued her desire to complete her Senior Honors Project at Lowell Transitional Living Center. After exploring several possibilities, she decided to concentrate on creating an educational workshop and brochure about intimate partner violence (IPV). Working with her mentor, Professor Margaret Knight at the Solomont School of Nursing, this student noticed a strong connection between IPV and homelessness, and upon her own initiative, decided to find a way to provide resources so that clients at LTLC could recognize the danger of these situations and know how to access help. To do this, she visited with women in the LTLC women's shelter, listened carefully to their stories, designed her own informational brochure, and distributed copies. Since I first met this student, she has shown tremendous initiative, innovation, and passion for providing useful assistance at both Lowell Transitional Living Center and the PALS program. In particular, her ability to build on her initial service with the health clinic at LTLC in spring 2018 by returning in Fall 2019 to do a health education project on Intimate Partner Violence is especially striking. All too often, service projects end in just one semester - by continuing her involvement over time, she was able to provide more effective service. 

Community Organization: Free Soil Arts Collective

Free Soil Arts Collective is well known around the city of Lowell and is making a great impact on the community. This was created because "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men" was a rallying cry of the civil rights movement. In the same vein that those who worked the soil deserved to be free, it is the belief of the Free Soil Arts Collective that those who come from underrepresented populations, have the right to tell their own stories. This organization provides opportunities for community theater for people of color and underrepresented populations. Most recently been working with children from the Collegiate Charter School of Lowell, who will perform an original piece that will debut during Black History Month. 

See past winners. 

UMass Lowell 2020 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Week

ALL LABOR HAS DIGNITY: CELEBRATING 125 YEARS OF LABOR AND HISTORY AT UMASS LOWELL

The Office of Multicultural Affairs invites you to submit original artwork to celebrate UMass Lowell’s 9th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Week Monday, January 27 through Friday, January 31, 2020. We gather our community through week-long events to commemorate and celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Art has been an integral aspect of the UMass Lowell celebration and this year we are excited to invite the campus community to participate.

This year’s theme was submitted by a campus community member and it is focused on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s work on economic justice. We are looking for artwork (photos or canvas art that speaks broadly to economic justice or an interpretation of some key historical events including but not limited to:

• 1956 Montgomery Strike
• The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
• 1964 Scripto Pen Factory Strike
• 1967-1968 The Poor People’s Campaign
• 1968 Memphis Sanitation Worker’s Strike

Requirements:

• Medium(s): We will be accepting art that can be displayed on easels or canvases.
• Works in the following categories may be submitted: painting, drawing, mixed, collage, photography
• Canvas dimensions 8”x10”: If you are using this medium, the Office of Multicultural Affairs can provide the canvas. Please email Elsie_Otero@uml.edu for more information.
• All entries should reflect on the theme of the UMass Lowell 2020 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Week - “All Labor Has Dignity: Celebrating 125 Years of Labor and History at UMass Lowell”
• Entries should include artist name, student id #, email address, phone number, brief artist background, title, and description of artwork.

Deadline:

All art pieces will need to be received by Tuesday, January 21, 2019, and can be delivered to the Office of Multicultural Affairs – University Crossing 366. Artwork will be displayed in University Crossing Moloney Hall starting on January 28 through the end of February. All participants are welcome to join the campus community during the MLK Dinner on January 28 where the artwork will be officially unveiled. The Office of Multicultural Affairs will return artwork at the end of the display period.

Entry:

If you are interested in participating please email: Elsie Otero at Elsie_Otero@uml.edu.

Questions?

Contact Associate Director of Multicultural Affairs Francine Coston by email at: Francine_Coston@uml.edu.

To see pictures from our 2020 MLK ceremony, please visit our Facebook page.

Watch our 2016 community collaboration with Murkland Elementary: "Lenses of Civil Right: Intersections of Struggle and Progress."