Arie Jongejan, a master's student at the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, was one of three University of Michigan students selected to receive an inaugural Compassion in Action Award. The awards were created by Jewel Heart Ann Arbor, a local Buddhist learning center, and bestowed by His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama in a ceremony Sunday.

His Holiness greeted Jongejan and the other students on stage at Crisler Arena, awarded them certificates and then draped upon each a kata, a ceremonial Tibetan scarf. The ceremony took place at the end of the Special Wege Lecture on Sustainability, delivered by His Holiness and sponsored by the Center for Sustainable Systems at the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE).

The Compassion awards were created to recognize achievement by University of Michigan students in the areas of poverty, public health and environment. Jongejan was honored for his environmental contributions. He is interested in energy strategy and is focusing his efforts at Erb, from which he expects to graduate in 2010, on entrepreneurship and business development in renewable energy and clean technology.

Prior to his acceptance into the dual-degree Erb program, Jongejan spent more than four years working in the audit practice of Deloitte - the accounting, tax and consulting company - at its San Francisco and Boston offices. Last year, he trained Karen refugees along the Thailand-Burma border in renewable energy technologies. Their main project was to install, alongside Karen engineering students, solar systems in eight refugee camps. These systems were designed to provide electricity in order to power computer centers.

Jongejan has lived in South America and southeast Asia and speaks Spanish and Thai. He is interested in creating a full-time "Campus Greening" team - an initiative to systemically develop a "University of Michigan" that optimizes user morale and productivity and promotes cost savings while simultaneously reducing environmental and social impact. He was nominated for the honor by Andy Hoffman, the Holcim Professor of Sustainable Enterprise. Professor Hoffman holds a joint appointment with SNRE and the Ross School of Business.

The other student recipients were Julie Maslowsky, a psychology student, and Danielle Bober, a public health student. Each received $5,000.

About the School of Natural Resources and Environment:
The School of Natural Resources and Environment's overarching objective is to contribute to the protection of the earth's resources and the achievement of a sustainable society. Through research, teaching, and outreach, faculty, staff, and students are devoted to generating knowledge and developing policies, techniques and skills to help practitioners manage and conserve natural and environmental resources to meet the full range of human needs on a sustainable basis.

About the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise:
The Erb Institute at the University of Michigan fosters global sustainable enterprise through interdisciplinary research and education initiatives, including our acclaimed MBA/MS Program. Utilizing a collaborative approach, we help business, government andcivil society organizations to achieve meaningful progress toward sustainability.