2007 Young Alumni Achievement Award Recipient

Terry Goeldner, member of the Class of 1997, you epitomize Cornell’s mission to empower students for leadership and humane service in the global community. For that reason you have been chosen by the Alumni Association Board of Directors to receive the Young Alumni Achievement Award.

In the 10 years since graduation, you have devoted your career to serving the world community. Soon after earning your degree in environmental studies and philosophy, you began working for the U.S. Agency for International Development as a disaster logistics specialist. Your duties included traveling to Kosovo on a relief flight of humanitarian supplies, and later working with a team that air-dropped emergency food rations to refugees hiding in the mountains within Kosovo. You went to Ethiopia, Djibouti [ ji-BOO-tea ], and Somalia to assess the humanitarian pipeline of food aid into the Horn of Africa region. You managed logistical responses to disasters in Mozambique, Venezuela, the Philippines, and dozens of other countries.

When you joined World Vision, you were called upon to oversee delivery of food aid to 13 countries. And then with the United Nations World Food Programme, you helped coordinate the distribution of food to more people suffering from hunger, first in the African country of Malawi, and then in Iraq.

In 2004, you provided logistical and contract services support for Afghanistan’s first democratic national election to choose a president. You directed the recruitment and registration of election staff and the operation and service of election vehicles to transport supplies and ballots – even arranging for donkeys to carry ballots from the remote villages and polling places. In 2005, you helped coordinate Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections.

Your most recent work has been as program finance officer with The HALO Trust in Afghanistan, where this nonprofit organization works to clear minefields.

Terry, you have truly made a difference in the world. For your commitment to the service of others and your ongoing demonstration of the ideals and mission of the college, we are proud to recognize you as an established leader among Cornell College’s young alumni.

Past Young Alumni Award Winners

2002
Kathleen Braddy '92

2003
No award given

2004
Matt Weiss '99

2005
Tim Devine '92

2006
No award given

2007
Terry Goeldner '97