The Einhorn Center for Community Engagement is excited to announce that Liam Du ’25 is the 2024 Community Work-Study Program (CWSP) Student Employee of the Year. A computer science major with a minor in human development, Du received the award for his work with the North American Food Systems Network (NAFSN). He was nominated by NAFSN leadership co-chair Kim Hines.

“It’s been an absolute privilege to work with Kim Hines on the Community & Agriculture Resilience Audit Tool and other North American Food System Network-related projects,” Du said. “Beyond my academic studies, I’m passionate about technology’s potential to improve lives, driving my interest in user experience design, full-stack development and entrepreneurship.”

Du has applied his skills and interests to two national projects with NAFSN: the Community & Agriculture Resilience Audit Tool (CARAT) and the Community Food Systems Employment Data project (COM-FED). CARAT is a free, open-source tool for communities to self-assess how they are using the assets of their local food system to achieve community resilience. Du worked alongside other Cornell students to help the CARAT tool take shape as a downloadable, fillable PDF for community members. During that process, he suggested that CARAT could also be made into a digital tool and led the process of building carattool.org.

For COM-FED, an initiative to generate and share insights on employment opportunities, Du wrote code to integrate a data spreadsheet with an open-access jobs board. His efforts halved the time NAFSN needed to manage the COM-FED project.

“Liam is an emerging IT professional who has very generously shared his aptitude in technology with our organization at a time and place when it has mattered the most. With outstanding listening skills, stoic stick-to-it-iveness and a clear desire to deliver excellence, Liam has advanced several of our primary projects to the next level, and beyond,” Hines said.

Du has also helped improve accessibility on the NAFSN website toward the goal of ADA compliance and supports the CommFoodJobs listserv. NAFSN is facilitated by the Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems, a fiscally sponsored project of the Center for Transformative Action. CTA is a nonprofit affiliate of Cornell University.

Through CWSP, Cornell students can use Federal Work Study or Cornell Tradition funding to work for Tompkins County nonprofit organizations, schools and municipalities, or in positions on campus that improve the quality of life for community residents. Student Employees of the Year are nominated by their CWSP or Cornell Tradition supervisors based on their leadership, professionalism and teamwork, among other skills.