Alice Waugh, LGO Communications Director
Left to right: Rob Mosher (LGO '99); former Harrison
Smith Award winners Jason Chen (LGO '12) and
Jeremy Stewart (LGO '10); Harrison Smith's
parents, Charles and Sandra Smith; 2012 award
winner Steve Herington; Sandy Storey, Charles
Harrison Smith's sister; and previous award
winners Ryan Lester (LGO '09), Limor Zehavi
(LGO '12),and Aaron Raphel (LGO '05).
Steve Herington (LGO '13) is the 2012 winner of LGO's Harrison Smith Award, a scholarship award given annually to one or more first-year students who have made outstanding contributions to the program and have shown remarkable leadership in their first year.
The award, which is based on peer nominations, honors Harrison Smith (LGO '99), who died just days after his graduation from MIT at age 27. Smith's classmates and family established the award as a way to recognize his lasting contributions to LGO (formerly Leaders for Manufacturing or LFM).
Smith's friend Rob Mosher (LGO '99) said of Smith, "He was the kind of person who brought out the best in others. He was always smiling and organizing activities. He was at the center of the formation of our class character." Smith helped organize a 1998 plant tour as well as various community service projects and outdoor activities for LGOs. "He was determined to get the most out of every minute of his life," Mosher said.
Nominees for the 2012 Harrison Smith Award were
(standing, left to right) Stephen Trinh, Ashleigh
Range, Toni Ferriera, Matt Kasenga, Chengran Chai,
Jason Herrera, Dhanya Rangaraj, Erick Corona,
David Walker, and (kneeling) Brent Yoder, winner
Steve Herington, and David Linders.
Nominees recognized Herington for his enthusiasm, positivity and dependability in efforts that included leading a SIP class to help classmates acclimate during their internships, as well as the "Leading from the Middle" course.
"Steve's enthusiasm and ethic have enriched the entire class. His insistence on setting aside time for bonding activities such as trivia and dinners helped us click as a team and a class—and has set the tone of closeness and trust for the LGO class of 2013," said Limor Zehavi (LGO '12), co-winner of the 2011 award who read Herington's nomination at the May 14 award ceremony. "Ultimately, Steve lives and breathes the LGO ethic and has shaped our class in his image."
In accepting the award, an emotional Herington thanked his classmates and his wife Robyn. Before coming to LGO, Herington worked for 10 years at Dell, where Smith was heading for his new job when he was killed in a car accident shortly after LGO graduation. "Harrison would have been a tremendous asset not just to the company but the culture," he said.
"We have a tremendous amount to learn from each other," Herington said to his classmates. "Our two years here are just the beginning of our relationship."
Left to right: Harrison Smith's parents, Charles
Harrison Smith and Sandra Smith; LGO program
director Don Rosenfield; 2012 award winner Steve
Herington, and Sandra Storey, Charles H. Smith's
sister.
"This award is very meaningful to us. The best years of Harrison's life were the two years he was here at LFM," said Smith's father Charles Harrison Smith, who attended the ceremony with other family members.
In addition to many current LGO students, past Harrison Smith Award winners Aaron Raphael (LGO '05), and Ryan Lester (LGO '09) and Jeremy Stewart (LGO '10) also attended.
The other finalists for this year's award were LGO '13 students Chengran Chai, Erick Corona, Toni Ferreira, Jason Herrera, Matt Kasenga, David Linders, Dhanya Rangaraj, Ashleigh Range, Stephen Trinh, David Walker and Brent Yoder.
