Nicole Beck, a junior in Special Education, will be presented with the Individual Student Social Justice Award from the McKinley Foundation on March 9. Throughout her college career, Beck has worked with children with disabilities, including assisting with the Buddy Walk for families with a Down syndrome member and spending time with children at the Little Angels facility in Elgin.

Laura Taylor, Ed.D. '06 EPOL, former Urbana High School principal, will receive the Community Individual Social Justice Award for her work in establishing the Social Justice Committee there. Now an assistant superintendent at Champaign Unit 4 Schools, she created the committee to provide equal access and opportunity for all students to be successful in public schools.

FEBRUARY 19, 2013, THE NEWS-GAZETTE, CHAMPAIGN, ILL.— The Champaign County Health Care Consumers are among four winners of the 2013 McKinley Foundation Social Justice Awards.

The award winners — which also include Laura Taylor, Nicole Beck and La Colectiva — and 10 nominees will be honored at an event at 5:30 p.m. March 9 at the McKinley Foundation, 809 S. Fifth St., C. Tickets are $50 per person and may be ordered via http://www.mckinley-church.org or at the McKinley Foundation building.

The winners:
— Nicole Beck, Individual Student Award. She had worked with children with disabilities, assisting with the Buddy Walk for families with a Down syndrome member and spending time with children at the Little Angels facility in Elgin. Locally, she ended her student teaching in Mahomet by working with students with disabilities in the resource room. She was a resident adviser at Presby Hall for one and a half years.

— Former Urbana High School Principal Laura Taylor will receive the Community Individual Award for her work in the Urbana school district. She established the Social Justice Committee as a way to explore both the advantages and disadvantages that students encounter for a variety of reasons. The committee's goal was to provide equal access and opportunity for all students to be successful in public schools that traditionally serve the majority.

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