Shortly after graduating in May, Raissa Kanku received the Ohio Campus Compact’s Charles J. Ping Student Service Award, which honors “the next generation of civic leaders and problem solvers.” A double-major in politics and government and French and a resident of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kanku’s multiple OWU Connection experiences included projects exploring: the role of community service volunteers within vulnerable spaces; slavery in Libya; spatial justice and mentorship of children in the Congo; migration and human rights in Mexico; redlining (denying services to specific neighborhoods or populations) in Chicago and Paris; Hurricane Katrina reconstruction in New Orleans; interfaith collaborations in Pittsburgh; and local homelessness in Delaware, Ohio. She plans to pursue a master’s degree in international affairs at the Graduate Institute Geneva in Switzerland.