In an out-of-character move, The President William, Jefferson, Clinton Hunger Leadership award awarded an honorable mention to Auburn University's own shining star in the battle against hunger.
Devin Yeomans, senior in nutrition and dietetics, was the sole recipient of the honorable mention for The President William Jefferson Clinton Hunger Leadership Award.
Yeomans was approached by her mentors, Paul Harris, associate director for the honors college. and Kate Thorton, director of hunger and sustainability initiative in the College of Human Sciences as well as the Hunger Solutions Institute, last semester.
"They suggested that I would be a good candidate for it and I thought it would be a good opportunity to represent Auburn," Yeomans said. "I thought it would be a good way to show off Auburn a little bit and all the cool things that are going on here."
Auburn is the home of Universities Fighting World Hunger, The Committee of 19 and a new hunger solutions institute.
The process of applying for this award started with submitting a video.
Yoemans worked with a videographer and the final outcome portrayed Yeomans as a mime.
"Hunger is a silent population of people that are going hungry and therefore don't have a voice," Yeomans said. "So he got this idea and turned me into a mime."
Yeomans sent her video, along with hundreds of other students across America, to a panel of judges, Harris said.
Her video made it to the finals along with four other students.
Yeomans then wrote three 1,000-word essays discussing what she was doing as a leader to fight hunger, what she planned to do in the future to battle the growing epidemic and current efforts to end hunger world-wide by governments and non-profit organizations.
Harris said Yeomans was rewarded $250 in financial support for her film from his office for national prestigious scholarships.
Harris helped Yeomans during the application process by guiding her through the difficult and challenging essay-writing portion of the application.
"They were very detailed and tough essays to write," Harris said. "I worked with Devin to get her to think about what she was all about."
When Yeomans received the news of her honorable mention, she was told that honorable mentions are usually not even given out.
"I was really excited and of course it's a huge honor to win an award like that," Yeomans said.
Thornton taught Devin in her class in the fall of 2011.
Thornton teaches a Hunger: Causes, Consequences and Responses course.
"When I first met (Yeomans) she was pretty meek and quiet and then it was really awesome to see her transformation over the last couple of years, where she's gone from somebody who was pretty timid to somebody who can stand up in front of a room of hundreds of people and very confidently speak well about what she's passionate about," Thornton said.
Yeomans plans on applying to the rural sociology program for graduate school after completing her undergraduate degree this year.
"I would describe her as a person with a big heart who is concerned with helping out those most in need and who is taking steps to make the world a better place," Harris said.
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