The University of Michigan’s North Campus Spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Recognition committee announced Taubman College’s Kush Patel, Ph.D. candidate within the architecture program, with the Spirit of MLK Award.

The award recognizes and celebrates the many contributions that students from the School of Art and Design, School of Music, Theater and Dance, the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and the College of Engineering make to our campus and local communities.

Patel was nominated by Jackie Simpson, director of the Spectrum Center, for his volunteerism and leadership within his field of study and the university community. Patel is active in an interdisciplinary student organization, The Planning and Architecture Research Group (PARG), in Taubman College that fosters community and scholarship for planning and architecture students. He is a member and the creator of the Spectrum Center student advisory board. He successfully initiated the International Spectrum which aims to provide resources, help and guidance to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender-identified international students at the University.

Other award winners included: Michael Alexander, Mechanical Engineering; Vikas Hiremath, Chemical Engineering; Jasmine Way, Industrial and Operations Engineering; and Casady Wyckoff, Materials Science and Engineering.

Also nominated from Taubman College were:

Rachel Mensah, M.Arch.
Sophonie Joseph, M.U.P.
Laura Smith, Ph.D. architecture

All of the nominated students and the award recipients are serving their communities as well as continuing their work as students. They exemplify the leadership and commitment to social justice, which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. so brilliantly embodied.