Azeem Ahmed, senior in finance with a minor in sustainability, has dedicated the majority of his life to helping others.
This year, Ahmed was awarded the worldwide Clinton Hunger Leadership Award, which will be presented to him Feb. 28 through March 2 at the Universities Fighting World Hunger summit.
It all started when Ahmed volunteered at the food bank around the age of seven.
Before enrolling at Auburn, Ahmed was very active in organizations such as 4-H.
Ahmed helped organize food drives, hunger banquets to demonstrate food inequality, and started mobile food pantries in Lee County.
Ahmed said he believes hunger is a global issue that needs to be addressed.
"Hunger is the core issue that can allow us to tackle other issues," Ahmed said. "If we take care of hunger, we can prevent things that directly affect other things like education, health care, or income disparities all over the world. That was the realization that I came to. Plus, it is something that I have just been working on for so long that it's become very close to my heart."
Since he has been at Auburn, Ahmed has been involved in the Committee of 19, taken classes in hunger studies, helped restart the Campus Kitchen Project and continued to volunteer at the local food bank.
Harriet Giles, managing director of the Hunger Solution Institute and director of external relations for the College of Human Sciences, said he's known Ahmed since he was a little boy.
"Azeem is a wonderful student and a wonderful human being," Giles said. "He is someone who will go far. There's no doubt with winning the Clinton award and the Truman fellowship. He's just an outstanding student and man of character. He deserves everything that has come to him."
According to Ahmed, a number of people urged him to apply for the Clinton Hunger Leadership Award.
"Growing up, my parents were really the ones that encouraged my brother and I to get involved in the community and spend time at the food bank," Ahmed said. "Our dad would take us out to the community market, which is where we volunteered on Saturday mornings. It is something that we did for years and years. My parents really did instill that value in me."
Paul Harris, associate director of national prestigious scholarships, recruited Ahmed to Auburn when he was a senior in high school and is one of his professors today.
"He's grown a great deal," Harris said. "Intellectually he's grown, but he's also grown socially and emotionally. He's matured a great deal."
Harris said he believes there are many traits a student must have to win an award such as the Clinton Hunger Leadership Award.
"Someone who has solid grades, earnest and sustained commitment to alleviating hunger and someone who has made it their life goal to help other people, that's really what it is," Harris said. "That is something you really can't teach in a classroom."
Ahmed is also pre-med.
"As for a career, I am hoping to become a doctor, and I do believe that healthcare and hunger are closely tied," Ahmed said.
Ahmed plans to continue his service work post graduation.
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