La Salle Graduate Christopher McNabb Receives Honors for Academics and “Excellent Service in Public Welfare”

McNabb has been involved in numerous activities, including AIDS outreach, helping the homeless, tutoring school children, anti-hunger programs, and travelling to foreign countries to help build schools.  He also completed an internship in the Philippines which he worked with Christian Brothers (the order that operates La Salle) ministering troubled young men.

He also received the Brother Emery C. Mollenhauer Award at La Salle. The award is for his service and dedication to the La Salle community. The honor recognizes students who “have demonstrated the Judeo-Christian Ideas of Social Justice.”

“If there is one phrase that describes Chris, it is ‘social justice’,” said Br. Robert Kinzler, Director of University Ministry and Service at La Salle. “Since his freshman year, he has been involved in AIDS outreach, a program where our students spend one evening a week with individuals who are HIV+ or have AIDS. I have seen Chris interact with these individuals, and it is inspiring.”

A graduate of Devon Preparatory School, McNabb was also a founder and organizer of Social Justice Week at La Salle. In addition, he helped start a group of upper classmen who counseled freshmen and transfer students on the adjustment to college life.

This summer, McNabb plans to work at the La Salle Neighborhood Nursing Center, which provide access to public health as well as educational and community services to under-served populations residing in the city’s northwest region. After that, he hopes to work with ‘at-risk’ youth, “and then go international to work with ‘street kids’ in developing countries,” he said.

When he was about 10, McNabb and his family visited Washington, D.C., and it made a lasting impression on him.

“I saw the homeless living on the street and was very curious why they chose to live on the streets,” he said. “I asked my Mom why no one was taking care of them. I was confused, and I asked why they couldn't live in the White House, which seemed to have a lot of extra room.  Still confused, I wrote a letter to President Clinton, who wrote back telling me he and Vice President Gore were working on the issue.  With all due respect to President Clinton, I still saw homeless people, and realized work still had to be done. It was at that moment that I began my commitment to service.”