Music impresario Quincy Jones was honored by HSPH as its first-ever "Mentor of the Year" at a star-studded gala on January 24 at New York City's Core Club. The event also celebrated the launch of the Q Prize, an award created by Quincy Jones and HSPH to recognize international leadership in advocacy for children.
Musician Usher (left) and HSPH Associate Dean Jay Winsten (right) presented Quincy Jones with the Mentor of the Year award.
This year's inaugural Q Prize recipient is Scott Neeson, executive director of the Cambodian Children's Fund (CCF), a safe house for Cambodia's orphaned, abandoned, and abused children. Created by Neeson in 2003, the CCF serves 240 children from amongst the most impoverished and uneducated of Cambodia's population, those at greatest risk of child trafficking. Most of CCF's children were rescued from Stoeng Meanchey, Phnom Penh's notorious rubbish dump. It is there that hundreds of other children continue to live and work, picking through the refuse for recyclable metals and hard plastics.
Neeson left a successful career as a film executive in Hollywood and moved to Phnom Penh in 2004 to work full time on the charity. The CCF offers shelter, nutritional meals, a comprehensive education that includes English and Khmer reading and writing, math, and computer training, plus in-house medical services, a cultural program of dance and drama, and a vocational training program.
The January 24 event was a highlight of National Mentoring Month (NMM), a campaign held each January to recruit volunteer mentors for at-risk youth. The campaign's theme is "Pass it on. Become a Mentor." Studies have shown that mentoring programs are a highly effective strategy for preventing youth violence and drug abuse.
National Mentoring Month 2007 is spearheaded by the Harvard Mentoring Project of HSPH, MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership, and the Corporation for National and Community Service. Sponsors include MCJ Foundation and MetLife Foundation.
The January 24 event was underwritten by Audemars Piguet. The inaugural Q Prize was funded by Sterling Stamos. Additional support for the Q Prize was provided by Time Warner and DaimlerChrysler.
Copyright, 2009, President and Fellows of Harvard College
