OVERVIEW

During the 2010-2011 academic year, the Pilgrim Place community, located in Claremont, California, will offer two $10,000 Napier Awards for Creative Leadership.  The two Awards are for graduating seniors at the five Claremont colleges: Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Pomona, and Scripps.

The Napier Awards will be conferred annually as a memorial to Davie and Joy Napier, long-time residents of Pilgrim Place, who in earlier years had remarkable careers as prophetic advocates for justice and peace at major educational institutions across the United States (Click here to read more about Davie and Joy Napier). It is anticipated that in subsequent years, the Awards will be extended to five additional schools: Yale Divinity School, Yale College, Stanford University, Pacific School of Religion, and Claremont School of Theology.

The Awards will be given to two graduating seniors who have demonstrated outstanding leadership promise in one of the three principal fields to which the Napiers dedicated themselves: global peace, racial justice, and care of the Earth.  Each of the five colleges will nominate up to three applicants for the Awards, with the two winners being chosen from the nominees by a selection panel at Pilgrim Place.  Additionally, each of the students nominated by the colleges will have the opportunity for a one-year mentoring relationship with Pilgrim Place residents having a significant vocational affinity with the nominee.

All nominees, as well as other college and community members, will gather at Pilgrim Place from Friday evening, February 11, through Saturday evening, February 12, 2011, for a time of workshops and interaction with distinguished practitioners in the fields of global peace, racial justice, and care of the Earth.  At a festive dinner Saturday evening, the two Napier Award winners will be publicly announced.

Pilgrim Place, established in Claremont in 1915, is now the home of some 325 men and women, most of whom had careers as leaders of a variety of religious and humanitarian organizations in the United States and around the world.  Many of them have long experience addressing the three fields that are the focus of the Napier Awards.