For Immediate Release
August 22, 2006
Contact Information
Julia Cartwright
202-454-5596
AMERICAN LEGACY FOUNDATION® ANNOUNCES BRIAN SWANEY AS A WINNER OF THE ALMA S. ADAMS SCHOLARSHIP FOR OUTREACH AND HEALTH COMMUNICATIONS TO REDUCE TOBACCO USE AMONG PRIORITY POPULATIONS
( August 21, 206) WASHINGTON, D.C. – Brian Swaney, a high school senior from Mentor, Ohio, has been awarded the first annual Alma S. Adams Scholarship for Outreach and Health Communications to Reduce Tobacco use among Priority Populations. The scholarship was developed and funded by the American Legacy Foundation®, the largest independent national public health foundation dedicated to keeping young people from smoking and helping smokers quit.
The scholarship fund – created in September 2005 to honor former foundation board member the Honorable Alma S. Adams, Ph.D. – awards two students $5,000 each for their outstanding community service and use of artistic abilities to spread the word about tobacco’s deadly toll within underserved communities. The award honors Dr. Adams, a North Carolina state representative, professional artist and educator, who has made social justice for minority communities a focus of her professional and legislative career.
“Brian Swaney has displayed outstanding leadership skills and innovative communications initiatives through his work in tobacco and drug prevention in his community, making him an exceptional candidate for the Alma S. Adams Scholarship,” said Cheryl Healton, Dr. P.H., President and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation.
Swaney, a senior at Mentor High School, worked on drug prevention issues as the President of the school’s Teen Institute. He also served on the Teen Advisory Panel for stand, the Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation’s youth tobacco prevention counter-marketing campaign.
For his creative application, Brian submitted pages from a Web site that he developed which chronicled his community activism. The site caught the interest of Ohio’s Governor, who wrote Brian an acknowledgement letter expressing his gratitude for the great work he has done on this important issue.
As part of the scholarship criteria, applicants could include essays, poems, paintings, cartoons, and sketches for murals, or recordings of spoken-word poetry. Scholarship funds can be used by the winners for college tuition, books and related living expenses.
Dr. Alma Adams, Ph.D. is a Professor of Art at Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, North Carolina. She has been a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives since 1994 and was re-elected in 2000 to her fourth term as the district 26 representative from Greensboro. Dr. Adams was also a founding member of the American Legacy Foundation’s Board of Directors and served as Board Secretary and Vice Chair.
The American Legacy Foundation® is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use through grants, technical assistance and training, youth activism, strategic partnerships, counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns, research, public relations, and outreach to populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco.
The foundation’s national programs include Circle of Friends®, Great Start®, a Priority Populations Initiative, Streetheory® and truth®. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five US territories and the tobacco industry. Visit www.americanlegacy.org.
The scholarship fund – created in September 2005 to honor former foundation board member the Honorable Alma S. Adams, Ph.D. – awards two students $5,000 each for their outstanding community service and use of artistic abilities to spread the word about tobacco’s deadly toll within underserved communities. The award honors Dr. Adams, a North Carolina state representative, professional artist and educator, who has made social justice for minority communities a focus of her professional and legislative career.
“Brian Swaney has displayed outstanding leadership skills and innovative communications initiatives through his work in tobacco and drug prevention in his community, making him an exceptional candidate for the Alma S. Adams Scholarship,” said Cheryl Healton, Dr. P.H., President and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation.
Swaney, a senior at Mentor High School, worked on drug prevention issues as the President of the school’s Teen Institute. He also served on the Teen Advisory Panel for stand, the Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation’s youth tobacco prevention counter-marketing campaign.
For his creative application, Brian submitted pages from a Web site that he developed which chronicled his community activism. The site caught the interest of Ohio’s Governor, who wrote Brian an acknowledgement letter expressing his gratitude for the great work he has done on this important issue.
As part of the scholarship criteria, applicants could include essays, poems, paintings, cartoons, and sketches for murals, or recordings of spoken-word poetry. Scholarship funds can be used by the winners for college tuition, books and related living expenses.
Dr. Alma Adams, Ph.D. is a Professor of Art at Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, North Carolina. She has been a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives since 1994 and was re-elected in 2000 to her fourth term as the district 26 representative from Greensboro. Dr. Adams was also a founding member of the American Legacy Foundation’s Board of Directors and served as Board Secretary and Vice Chair.
The American Legacy Foundation® is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use through grants, technical assistance and training, youth activism, strategic partnerships, counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns, research, public relations, and outreach to populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco.
The foundation’s national programs include Circle of Friends®, Great Start®, a Priority Populations Initiative, Streetheory® and truth®. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five US territories and the tobacco industry. Visit www.americanlegacy.org.
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