KU senior receives 2012 Campanile Award
LAWRENCE – University of Kansas senior Sarafina Kankam has received the 2012 Campanile Award, given to a single graduating senior who has displayed remarkable leadership, character and respect for KU.
Kankam, of Lenexa, graduated May 13 with a bachelor's degree in human biology.
The Campanile Award was established as the Senior Class Gift from the Class of 2000 and is presented to a graduating senior by the Board of Class Officers.
While at KU, Kankam was involved in a number of academic and extracurricular activities and was the recipient of various awards. She was featured on the Women of Distinction calendar in 2011. She was a KU Multicultural Math and Science Scholar, received the Black Faculty and Staff Council Student Achievement Award in April 2011 and the Kansas Health Foundation Undergraduate Fellow in Community Health for 2011-2012.
Kankam founded and served as president of the Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students, a program that strives to support minority students as they transition into medical school and to eliminate health disparities in ethnic communities. She founded and served as vice president of programming for the Phi Delta Epsilon Medical Fraternity, a group established to provide KU pre-medical students with a close-knit group of like-minded individuals committed to philanthropy, education, fellowship and mentoring.
Kankam co-founded KU Project Africa in 2009, a nonprofit organization intended to serve underprivileged children in Africa. Being the daughter of two Ghanaian immigrants, she has a deep emotional connection and aspiration to assist those struggling on this continent. As president, she coordinated fundraisers, collected dental supplies and organized a trip to Ghana to donate the dental supplies and money raised to the children of the Adullam Orphanage and local village schools.
As a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority, serving as the scholarship chairman, Kankam developed study plans for struggling members and collectively raised the chapter's GPA to the highest it had been since 2003.
Kankam has been accepted to and plans to attend the University of Kansas School of Medicine in the fall to pursue her passion in the medical profession. She is the daughter of Martin and Maggie Kankam.