Student and fraternity recognized with Community Service Award during ceremony tonight

Troy, N.Y. — In a tribute to outstanding commitments to community service, the Rensselaer Alumni Association (RAA) will recognize both an individual student and a Greek life organization with its Community Service Award. Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and Tamer Khattab ’08 will be presented with the award tonight — Friday, Feb. 1 — during the first intermission of the Rensselaer vs. Quinnipiac hockey game.

Recognizing Greek Life Generosity
For the second consecutive year, Pi Kappa Alpha has been chosen as the recipient of the RAA Community Service Award for Greek Life.

Members of the fraternity have spent nearly 4,800 hours in community service and in philanthropic activities over the past year, raising $23,350. Their activities included: developing — Can Tabs for Cancer, — a new project to raise money for cancer research; “adopting — and cleaning up local Route 7 (Hoosick Street in Troy); and a yearly Neighborhood Rake-A-Thon for local area homes.
 
Pi Kappa Alpha members also assisted in promoting AIDS awareness on campus, and co-sponsored the Rensselaer Student Health Center’s Health and Wellness Fair.

Additionally, their second annual — Pikes Presents — program raised over $3,500 — more than double what they raised last year — to provide a holiday gift to every student in grades K through 6 at local school P.S. 2.

Newly created by the RAA Board of Trustees in 2006, the RAA Community Service Award for Greek Life is designed to recognize a fraternity or sorority involved in service and activities that have a significant positive impact on the community.

The award includes a plaque and $1,000 donation made to the charity of the winning organization’s choice. Pi Kappa Alpha will donate the money to the American Cancer Society as part of Rensselaer’s Relay for Life.

Honoring an Individual’s Impact
President of the Rensselaer Student and County chapter of Habitat for Humanity, Tamer Khattab has raised nearly $8,700 for the organization as a fundraising coordinator and has personally volunteered at builds since his freshman year. He has also helped coordinate Habitat for Humanity building projects for incoming freshmen as part of Navigating Rensselaer and Beyond — a series of welcoming events, team-building adventures, and festivities designed to help make the transition to college life comfortable for first-year students.

A senior with a dual major in civil engineering and science, technology, and society, Khattab is also a member of Rensselaer’s Red and White student organization — a group of students who serve as ambassadors — and has served as the group’s vice president for alumni activities for the past two years.

Khattab is also active in the arts, and has worked with the Arts Center of the Capital Region to help coordinate Rock Fest!, a one-week camp for musically inclined teens in the community.

As a recipient of the RAA Community Service Award — which was created in 2002 by the RAA Board of Trustees and is designed to recognize an individual student who is involved with community service and philanthropic activities in the local community — Khattab will receive a plaque and $1,000 donation to the charity of his choice. He will donate the money to Habitat for Humanity.

Contact: Amber Cleveland
Phone: (518) 276-2146
E-mail: clevea@rpi.edu