A car accident at the age of eight left me paralyzed and wheelchair bound for life, but also instilled in me a passion for serving the disabled community in the form of advocacy and education. At the age of ten, I began working locally on PR campaigns with Easter Seals, a non-profit organization that seeks to improve the lives of children and adults with disabilities.

While an undergraduate, Amanda primarily was involved with the Vanderbilt Cancer Society and ScholarBowl by serving on the executive boards for both organizations. Additionally, Amanda worked with the greater Nashville and Tennessee communities through her involvement with the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee (ACLU-TN).

At Vanderbilt, Devora enjoyed engaging in the Nashville community and incorporating her interests of policy, service, social action, and youth voice. She was appointed in January 2007 by Governor Bredesen to the Tennessee Commission on National and Community Service (now Volunteer Tennessee).

Since beginning her time at Vanderbilt, Amy has found a variety of service opportunities throughout the Vanderbilt, the Nashville and the international communities. Her work includes campus-wide service days, attending the COOL Leadership Conference, teaching English to an impoverished elementary school in the South of France, continual service with the Make-A-Wish foundation and support for the Invisible Children of Uganda and STAND an organization working to promote peace in Darfur.

At Vanderbilt, Jimmy was particularly interested in working with young people. From weekly gatherings and weekend retreats with middle school and high school youth at the downtown Cathedral of the Incarnation to after school visits at the Martha O'Bryan Center in East Nashville, mentoring young people was at the heart of Jimmy's volunteer work.

While in high school, Natalia initiated a project entitled Tali's Tooth Talk as part of an independent community service project designed to teach basic dental hygiene to elementary school children. She presented her 45 minute program to over 2,000 first through third graders in the span of two years.

Stephanie is an English/Theater major in the College of Arts and Science. She has worked for the past year at the Nashville Humane Association, socializing the dogs, cleaning, and helping the staff members with their care. She has also participated in nursing home and hospital visitation programs, in which she took puppies to visit senior citizens.

As an Ingram Scholar, Deniz mainly served the local Nashville community through music therapy. He continued his Music Therapy project from high school at Alive Hospice, a hospice residence for the terminally ill, and the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center.

I am a sophomore in the College of Arts and Science pursuing a double major in Sociology and Spanish with a minor in Women's Studies. Throughout high school I lead and implemented various service organizations with a focus on education, the promotion of equality and peer mentorship. As a student representative for an assortment of city service boards, I gained invaluable insight into the business and logistics behind non-profit organizations.

Boyce has shown his commitment to service during the past few years in a variety of different ways. Boyce's vision for service catalyzed in the spring of 2000 by meeting with the First Lady of El Salvador, Lourdes Flores, while involved with an medical/dental mission trip to El Salvador. This began a major involvement in a broad service commitment.

Suzi has always been passionate about serving others. She felt incredibly honored to be selected as an Ingram Scholar; this amazing program truly shaped her four years as a undergraduate at Vanderbilt. Her service activities at Vanderbilt generally involved either children or medicine (and sometimes both).

Clay Carroll first became involved with service early in his youth when he began playing his guitar for numerous community benefits and gatherings. Throughout his high school career, Clay devoted many hours to the HOPE! Drama Troup.

La-Toya Krystal Franklyn is a native of Trinidad and Tobago and a resident of Brooklyn, New York. She is a junior in the college of arts and science majoring in sociology, with a minor in political science. This summer La-Toya worked as an assistant teacher at the Andrew Jackson Boys and Girls Club, teaching reading and math to 6-10 year olds and career and college development to teenagers.

Service involvement includes founding "Expressions: Community Outreach Through the Arts," where for the last three years, Gabriel has translated his love for dance and the arts into community outreach for residents of the historic Preston-Taylor neighborhood.

Picture this: the smiling face of a senior citizen recounting his experiences as a naval aviator during World War II. Big, toothy grins appearing on the faces of elementary school kids stealing their first glimpse of an African chimpanzee at the local zoo.

Prior to attending Vanderbilt, Aden was responsible for spearheading a volunteer-run marketplace to sell fairly traded artwork from impoverished third-world artisans in his hometown. He also initiated a fundraiser and sister-school relationship with a primary school he visited in South Africa and he served as a "dancing cow" to raise money for Heifer International.

My community service began as a desire to have a peek into the medical field as a hospital volunteer in my freshman year of high school. Since then, my interest in medicine, and commitment and passion for helping people through volunteer work has only grown to become a very large part of my life and the driving force behind my endeavors.

At Vanderbilt, Hunter focused her service on children and families in under resourced areas. She founded ArtReach, a student organization that provided free after-school art classes for youth in the low income North Nasvhille neighborhood.

Annie focused her service at Vanderbilt on two of her passions: children and musical performance. Her goal was to maintain a balance of hands-on service and behind-the-scenes, strategic development of non-profits.

Stacy was and is a generalist world-changer; as such, she split her time at Vanderbilt between several different service areas. During her freshman and sophomore years, she founded and ran a college preparatory and mentoring program for low-income high school students, a program which continues to thrive at Vanderbilt.

Renata Yurikov is a senior from Omaha, Nebraska majoring in Political Science. Throughout high school Renata channeled her energies toward volunteering for causes that promote equality.

Sara plans to double major in Child Development and Special Education. Her two passions in life are singing and teaching. She has been teaching for the past four years. While teaching, she realized the importance of being read to at home and how it directly relates to a child's success in school.

Tony is currently working in Washington, DC. He is planning on attending law school in the future.

Emily is currently a member of the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine's Class of 2010.

Robert Cox, an Eagle Scout from Tullahoma, TN, has volunteered extensively in diverse education initiatives. During high school, Robert tutored elementary school students, authored an effective computer manual for educators, and designed and led numerous projects connecting schools and non-profits to digital media solutions.

I graduated from Vanderbilt in 2006 with a degree in Communications and American and Southern Studies. I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to be an Ingram Scholar.

At Vanderbilt, Mark helped create the first campus chapter of Manna Project International, a student-driven development organization started in Nicaragua by Vanderbilt graduates in 2004.

Kathy's undergraduate service focused on helping children and those with special needs. Kathy was the director of the Vanderbilt Best Buddies chapter for several years. Kathy also volunteered as tutor for an afterschool program for elementary students with poor academic performance.

The opportunity of a lifetime knocked at my door when I was presented with the prestigous opportunity to become a part of the Ingram Scholars Program at Vanderbilt. Throughout my high school career, community service, leadership and activism were aspects that were dominant in my daily activites and I was surprised to learn that this program emphasizes similar values in their scholars.

Karl Richardson is a freshman from Northern Virginia in the College of Arts and Science. Though his decision is not entirely final, he is planning to major in either Chemistry or Biology with a possible minor in German or ultimate frisbee. In the past his service has involved among other things working with children as a camp counselor, a tutor, and a participant on two mission trips to Mexico.