Director of MDC's Acclaimed Center for Community Involvement Named Florida’s Big Brother of the Year
Josh Young and former mentee
Miami, May 26, 2010 - A cornerstone of Miami Dade College’s (MDC) student experience is community service and engagement, and those efforts are spearheaded by MDC’s renowned Center for Community Involvement, one of the nation’s largest programs of its kind. Much of the Center’s success stems from its active director, Josh Young, who was recently named “Florida’s Big Brother of the Year” by the Big Brothers Big Sisters Association of Florida, an organization he has served for 15 years. Previously, he was selected as the 2001 “Big Brother of the Year of Greater Miami.”
Based at the Wolfson Campus, Young oversees service-learning and America Reads activities, as well as numerous other campus-community partnership and civic engagement initiatives for the college. He has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Virginia and master’s degrees in Social Work and Public Administration from Florida State University. He served two tours with the Peace Corps in Mali, West Africa and Paraguay, South America, and he ran summer community service programs for youth for four summers in the Dominican Republic with Visions International. He has been with Miami Dade College since 1994. MDC’s service-learning program now involves more than 270 faculty and 6,500 students annually. Young has also been a national service-learning mentor with the American Association of Community Colleges and has extensive experience leading workshops for faculty, students, community partners, and administrators around the nation.
The recipient of several other important awards, Young has previously been recognized with the 2007 “Community Engagement Educator Award” from Florida Campus Compact in the community college sector and the 2000 United Way “Green Family Values Award.” In addition, MDC’s Center for Community Involvement has consistently been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, and MDC was one of only nine community colleges in the nation to earn the prestigious 2008 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification.
Media-only contacts:
Juan Mendieta, 305-237-7611, jmendiet@mdc.edu, MDC communications director
Tere Estorino, 305-237-3949, testorin@mdc.edu, MDC media relations director
Sue Arrowsmith, 305-237-3710, sue.arrowsmith@mdc.edu, media specialist
Tarnell Carroll, 305-237-3359, tcarroll@mdc.edu, media specialist
Alejandro Rios, 305-237-7482, arios1@mdc.edu