Libertad Fellow and FPV Volunteer named to 2008 All-USA College Academic First Team

Libertad Fellow and Fútbol para la Vida regional coordinator Zak Kaufman was recently named to the 2008 All-USA College Academic First Team in recognition of his work with Fútbol para la Vida on HIV/AIDS education in the Dominican Republic, and fundraising and capacity building with Grassroot Soccer. Zak was one of 20 students recognized nationwide by USA Today's annual honor to outstanding undergraduates.

Zak is majoring in health and society in Latin America and the Caribbean at Dartmouth College and is writing a thesis based on a formal evaluation of the Fútbol para la Vida program. Zak has also raised over $100,000 for AIDS awareness and prevention in Africa through the organization Grassroot Soccer, and founded the campus group Dartmouth Ends Hunger.

From an interview with Dartmouth.com, Zak says, “I think learning really only begins in the classroom. The most rewarding times have been when I can connect classroom work with service and research.”

During 2007 as a Libertad Fellow, Zak worked with the communities of Saman, Batey Caraballo, and Cabarete to establish a Fútbol para la Vida program on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. He also worked with Project Esperanza in Puerto Plata, a service-learning program of Virginia Tech, to create a Fútbol para la Vida camp for street kids in the DR's third largest city. This March, Zak and fellow Dartmouth student Elise Braunschweig will lead a service-oriented spring break trip with other Dartmouth volunteers to build a community center and park at Saman, a Haitian barrio in Montellano that is leading the expansion of the Fútbol para la Vida program in bateyes throughout the Puerto Plata province.

Congratulations Zak, and keep up the good work!