The Hotchkiss School
Community Service Award
Since 1992, 47 alumni have received the Hotchkiss Alumni Association's Community Service Award. Recipients are selected by the Nominating Committee of the Alumni Association Board of Governors and are honored at an award ceremony on campus. The 2008 awards were presented at an all-School assembly on April 11, 2008. Visit a photo gallery of the event here.
THE 2008 RECIPIENTS
ANDREW W. RORABACK ’78
Andrew Roraback was born in Torrington, Connecticut, and attended public schools in Torrington and Litchfield before graduating from Hotchkiss. He earned his B.A. cum laude from Yale University in 1983, and his J.D. from the University of Virginia Law School in 1987. Following law school, he returned to Torrington to work at the family law firm of Roraback and Roraback, founded in 1883 by his great-grandfather.
In 1994, Senator Roraback was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives, where he served three terms. In 2000, he was elected to the Connecticut State Senate, where he is now Deputy Minority Leader Pro Tempore and Minority Caucus Chairman of the State Senate, a ranking member on the General Assembly’s Public Health Committee, and a senior member of the Judiciary Committee.
Senator Roraback has received numerous awards and recognitions for his leadership in preserving and protecting Connecticut’s natural resources and farmland. He was the lead proponent of a law that outlaws the importation and sale of invasive aquatic plants that pose a threat to the state’s lakes and streams. He has also worked with Mothers Against Drunk Driving to improve Connecticut’s drunk driving laws by referring first time offenders who are identified as chronic substance abusers to treatment rather than to an education program. In addition, Senator Roraback was successful in introducing Stephanie’s Law, requiring drivers who cause fatal accidents to submit to blood alcohol testing. He continues to work tirelessly on behalf of his constituents and the state of Connecticut.
MARCEL D. DEANS ’94
Marcel Deans is the Founding Principal of Victory Collegiate High School, a small public high school in Brooklyn, New York, that opened its doors in September 2007. Mr. Deans was invited to start the school by the Institute for Student Achievement, an organization working in New York City to encourage at-risk students to finish high school and go on to attend college.
Mr. Deans earned a B.A. in history from Columbia University, and a master's in educational administration from Bank Street College of Education. He began his career as a member of Teach for America’s 1998 New York Corps, teaching 6th grade at The Raphael Hernandez/Langston Hughes Elementary School in Harlem. From there, he joined the faculty at The Institute for Collaborative Education, a progressive public high school on the Lower East Side, and then served as Assistant Principal of Administration for The High School of Arts and Technology, a small high school located on the campus of Martin Luther King High School in Manhattan. It was as a result of these experiences that Mr. Deans began to think about creating a school with small classes and a focus on supporting both the social and academic development of students. In accepting the challenge of building Victory Collegiate, Mr. Deans carries on his commitment to serve as a role model and to demonstrate for his students that choices they make now can have a positive impact on their futures.