Three Cornell undergraduates are recipients of this year’s Robinson-Appel Humanitarian Awards, which recognize students for their commitment to community-engaged work addressing pressing social challenges. Frank Fang ’26, Jonathan Lam ’27 and Zilala Mamat ’26 will each receive $2,500 to support their projects.
This year’s awardees are partnering with groups both close to campus and far beyond — from Tompkins County residents to Southeast Asian and Uyghur diaspora populations — and are united by a shared commitment to connection, care and sustained engagement.
“The greatest challenge each year is narrowing the selection to just three recipients, because all applicants are clearly leveraging their education to make a meaningful impact on society beyond campus,” said Karen Yearwood, chief operating officer of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County and a member of the selection committee. “Our three winners rose to the top through the depth of their commitment and thoughtful approach.”
Fang
Fang has spent the past year helping build both homes and community at Second Wind Cottages in Newfield, New York. The nonprofit’s 18 cottages provide supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness, offering residents stability while they work toward recovery and reintegration. As the organization’s community and events coordinator, the biological engineering major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has worked closely with Cru Cornell, a faith-based student organization, and Jack Betts, a nursing student at Tompkins Cortland Community College, to spearhead weekly volunteer trips. “Volunteers have helped construct most of the homes while gaining essential life skills along the way,” Fang said. But he has also seen that housing alone is not enough. “Many residents still experience isolation, and this slows their healing and growth.” In response, he will use funds from the Robinson-Appel award to advance the completion of a new community center, which will give residents a place to gather, build relationships and participate in workshops and programs. The space will also open up more opportunities for volunteers and residents to share meals and exchange stories, deepening the impact across the broader community.
Lam
Lam, an industrial and labor relations major in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, began his ongoing partnership with Mekong NYC when he participated in its 2024 Intergenerational Summer Program and a subsequent internship. Thanks to these experiences, he became deeply involved in the Bronx-based nonprofit’s mission supporting Southeast Asian immigrant and refugee communities through direct services, arts and culture and community organizing. Lam has developed political education materials, assisted with workshops and participated in local and state organizing efforts. Much of this work responds to longstanding challenges facing Southeast Asian populations, including language barriers, political disenfranchisement and a heightened risk of deportation tied to past immigration policies. Lam plans to draw on the Robinson-Appel award to continue developing Building Collective Power: Southeast Asian Civic Engagement and Anti-Deportation Toolkit, a long-term initiative designed to help community members navigate those barriers through workshops and accessible resources for organizing, civic participation and deportation defense.
Mamat
Mamat has spent several years leading advocacy efforts for the Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group facing prosecution in China and spread around the world in exile. “For me, the Uyghur genocide is more than a human rights injustice I feel must be advocated for; it’s my family, it’s my people, it’s my life,” said the government major in the College of Arts and Sciences. “I am working to one day see the face of my own grandparents again.” In 2021, Mamat founded the nonprofit United Uyghur Youth (UUY) to help diasporic Uyghur youth connect with one another and their cultural heritage and has since expanded the organization internationally, offering youth workshops and cultural events across Europe, Australia and Turkey. She also co-founded Rawan Mentorship, which provides free college application support to Uyghur high school students living outside their homeland, and, as vice president of the Uyghur American Association, has engaged in advocacy with the United Nations and U.S. government. Award funds will help Mamat develop a public digital archive and online exhibition for UUY’s Kashgari Project, preserving rare cultural materials and oral histories from Uyghur diaspora communities around the world.
The annual award was established by Cornell alumni Gerald Robinson ’54, Margot Robinson ’55, Robert Appel ’53 and Helen Appel ’55 and is facilitated each spring by the David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement.
