Cogan Blackmon, is a senior at Valparaiso University where he will graduate this May with a degree in Theology. Cogan has helped collect and deliver thousands of pounds of food to a local food pantry, advocated for workers’ rights in Chicago and Northwest Indiana, and has orchestrated many campus awareness events on community issues. He has spent countless hours working in his community and learning deeply about service and social justice.

He said in his essay, “those activities enabled him to take concrete actions on behalf of justice, but without reflection, action is not enough.” He is the student coordinator of the Civic Reflection Project and has organized conversations in the departments of Engineering, Social Work, and Business, engaging over 250 students in deep discussions about the meaning of their studies for the lives in the world.

Cogan is described as remarkable, extremely humble and adverse to self-promotion, focused, and a multiplier creating platforms and opportunities for his peers to engage, and moving forward and out of the way to let others also lead, while he looks for new ways to serve