WASHINGTON — Jacob Costello of Wesley in Madison County was among 252 young people to receive the Congressional Award Gold Medal, which honors people between the ages of 14 and 23 for volunteer work, physical fitness, personal development and exploration.
Costello, 17 - who is completing his final year of home schooling and plans to attend the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville this fall - and 68 other award winners spent the week in Washington and were presented with their medals Wednesday.
A soft-spoken but confident teen, Costello said that he didn’t set out specifically to earn the recognition.
“It was just a process of cataloging all of the activities I was already doing,” he said. “I just stumbled upon it.”
Costello’s catalog included a range of activities.
For the volunteer portion, Costello completed more than 400 hours of work with the Washington County Historical Society, working as a master gardener landscaping the grounds at Headquarters House, a Civil War-era property, and educating visitors through living-history programs.
Costello also helped establish Mount Messiah Children’s Camp, a camp in Madison County near Huntsville, for children whose parents are incarcerated.
Costello cleared a quarter-mile walking trail at the camp, which is supported by his church, the White River Fellowship in Elkins.
A violinist, Costello performed with the North Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2008, an experience that bolstered the personal development section of his Congressional Award application. A trip backpacking, hiking, swimming and biking in New Mexico rounded out the physical-fitness portion.
Anthony Miller, the deputy secretary of education, told the award recipients that success only comes through sacrifice.
He recognized their parents and mentors, and quoted Mohandas Gandhi: “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Collectively, the recipients totaled more than 125,000 hours of community service.
Rep. John Boozman, who presented Costello with the medal - a gold medallion with the U.S. seal on one side and the image of the U.S. Capitol on the other- said the award is a “truly great honor.”
Boozman praised Costello in the Congressional Record, the official transcript of Congress’ proceedings.
“He’s a real example to others,” said Boozman, a Republican from Rogers.
While in town, Costello also met with Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat from Little Rock. Lincoln also recognized Costello in the Congressional Record.
Her statement reads, in part: “Jacob represents the best of our Arkansas values of hard work and determination. His dedication to volunteerism and public service is to be admired by all Arkansans, and I commend him for this tremendous honor.”
Costello’s immediate plans after returning to Arkansas this weekend were to brush up for his Eagle Scout Board of Review examination and to start his summer job as a research assistant at the University of Arkansas’ biological engineering department.
He said he didn’t know what his major will be in college, but plans to go to medical school after completing his undergraduate studies.
“Medicine is the best career in that it is directly helping people,” he said.
On Thursday the Senate confirmed Chris Masingill as the federal co-chairman of the Delta Regional Authority, an economic-development agency that makes grants in 252 poor counties and parishes in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.
Masingill currently serves as Gov. Mike Beebe’s director of intergovernmental affairs and as the governor’s implementation director for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly referred to as the economic stimulus plan, which was signed into law in 2009.
Lincoln noted that Masingill served on her staff in 2000, when the Senate passed legislation creating the authority.
“I know that Chris will doa tremendous job,” she said, “and I have confidence the agency will flourish with him at the helm.”
“Chris Masingill has been a champion of economic development issues throughout his career and knows the [regional authority] inside and out,” said Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.
Pryor joined with Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia to introduce legislation aimed at promoting innovation by allowing federal agencies to offer their employees a carrot - in the form of prize competitions.
The legislation - the Reward Innovation in America Act - authorizes federal agencies to hold competitions with monetary prizes to encourage innovation in basicand applied research, technology development, and prototype demonstration that advance the agencies’ missions. Currently, only a few federal agencies have limited authority to hold competitions.
Pryor acknowledged that “doesn’t sound like much,” but he cited existing prize competitions that have generated ideas from around the world - such as a competition to find a way to clean up the Exxon Valdez oil spill on the bottom of Prince William Sound.
“I hope it doesn’t sound silly to people, but these prizes have been very effective ways to spur innovation,” he told reporters in a conference call Wednesday. Perhaps the most famous example, he said, would be Charles Lindbergh, who “flew across the Atlantic to claim a $20,000 prize.”
Front Section, Pages 9 on 06/27/2010