The 2014 Opus Prize

Gonzaga University was chosen to host the 2014 Opus Prize, and Aaron was selected to travel to Chennai, India to visit Mr. Gollapalli Israel, one of this year’s three finalists. Learn more about the Prize and Aaron’s involvement below!

Opus Prize Origins and Values (as per the Opus Prize Website)

The Opus Prize Foundation is a private and independent nonprofit foundation established in 1994. The Prize identifies exceptional unsung social innovators and highlights their unique entrepreneurial approaches, which gives power to the disenfranchised, opportunities to the poorest and inspires others to pursue lives of service.

The Opus Prize is given annually to recognize unsung heroes of any faith tradition, anywhere in the world, solving today’s most persistent social problems. This $1 million faith-based humanitarian award and two $100,000 awards are collectively one of the world’s largest faith-based, humanitarian awards for social innovation.

Opus Prize winners combine an entrepreneurial spirit with an abiding faith to combat seemingly intractable global issues like poverty, illiteracy, hunger, disease, and injustice. Opus Prize winners demonstrate that change is possible, empowering and inspiring all of us.

Opus Prize recipients embody the Foundation’s core values of entrepreneurship, transformational leadership, faith lived each day, service to others, and respect for the dignity of the human person. Most significantly, Opus Prize winners exemplify the adage, “Give a person a fish; you have fed him for a day. Teach a person to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime.”

The Opus Prize Foundation selects universities as partners to organize and execute the Opus Prize selection process and award ceremony. Through these partnerships, students are challenged to think globally and inspired to live lives of service.

Gonzaga’s Role:

Gonzaga was selected by the Opus Prize Board to host the award in 2014, and as part of that selection Gonzaga was in charge of:

Seeking nominations for the Prize from a network of university connections around the world
Convene a select group of jurors to narrow the list down to three finalists for final review by the Opus Prize Board.
Identify and select students, staff and faculty to travel to the three finalist sites to vet the individuals/organizations selected by the jurors.
Host the Opus Prize Awards Ceremony in Spokane, WA sometime during the Fall of 2014.

To learn more about Gonzaga’s role hosting the Opus Prize, visit their website by clicking here.

Gonzaga Opus Prize Student Vetters: