Robert LeBlanc, a senior from Glenview, Ill., and Susan Prchal, a second-year Law School student from Huntington Beach, Calif., have been selected recipients of the University of Notre Dame Alumni Association’s 2001-02 Distinguished Student Award and Distinguished Graduate Student Award.p. The students will be recognized by the University’s president, Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday (Feb. 12) in the rotunda of the Main Building. The Alumni Association will host a luncheon in their honor April 26.p. A physics major, LeBlanc has earned Dean’s List honors in each semester of his college career. His future plans include teaching high school physics.p. Outside the classroom, LeBlanc has played a leadership role in the governance of Carroll Hall. He served as the freshman class representative, helping initiate the now annual Carroll Christmas celebration and a continuing service project with Logan Center. He was copresident of the residence hall as a sophomore and junior, creating new programs and maintaining previous traditions. Among the new projects was the hall’s Fusic Festival, a concert that raises funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the creation of a mentoring and tutoring program at the Boys and Girls Club of South Bend.p. LeBlanc has used his experience in hall governance to provide insight and direction this year as cochair of the Hall Presidents Council and as a representative on the Campus Life Council.p. Prchal is a 1999 graduate of Notre Dame who majored in government and international studies and Spanish. She joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps after graduation and was assigned to work with the Northwest Justice Project, assisting low-income residents of Washington state with free civil legal services.p. Prchal returned to Notre Dame in the fall of 2000 to enroll in law school, where she currently is president of the Public Interest Legal Forum, a member of the Women’s Legal Forum and the Social Justice Legal Forum, and a liaison between Notre Dame and the National Association for Public Interest Law. In those capacities she has been instrumental in developing criteria for administering a loan forgiveness program for Law School graduates who pursue public interest work.p. An assistant rector in McGlinn Hall, Prchal also has worked with the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and in San Diego as a part of the Notre Dame Law School’s Group Alternative Live-In Legal Education program.
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