Susan Maureen (Molly) Shaw '02
(Awarded  2012)

Molly Shaw leads by example. In her career as an advocate for Charlotte's public schools, and in her leadership and service to alma mater, this alumna is, as the Charlotte Observer noted, "someone to watch."

A few months ago, Molly wrote movingly in the Observer about the critical role of schools in society. "The best economic stimulus package we can invest in," she said, "is ensuring that every Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools student completes high school." In the brief decade since she graduated from Davidson, she has demonstrated ample commitment to that ideal. At a precociously young age, she was named the founding director of the Charlotte Teachers Institute, a creative partnership between Davidson, UNC Charlotte and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, which has energized hundreds of schoolteachers and professors, and created new curricula for schoolchildren across the region.

Building on that success, Molly was appointed in June to head another innovative program, Charlotte's Communities in Schools, which empowers at-risk students to stay in school and succeed in life.

Molly has been similarly influential in her service to Davidson. As a senior, she led the Class of '02 to a new record with the Senior Class Gift; and after graduating she worked for several years in the College Relations division, inspiring many of us to new levels of support for our alma mater. As a volunteer, she's served as Class Chair for the Annual Fund. And here again, she has led by example, providing support to the full range of Davidson's programs-The Davidson Trust, the Davidson Athletic Foundation, WDAV, and the Friends of the Arts, whose board she currently chairs. Molly has given her heart to Davidson-and to David Webb '02, who shares her commitment to and love for the college.

In her Davidson application, Molly quoted Mark Hopkins, who said, "We are to regard the mind as...a flame to be fed, an active being that must be strengthened to think and to feel." Molly Shaw: For the high regard that you bring to the minds of young people and teachers, for the flame that you feed through your work in education reform and your service to Davidson, and for the example that you set at the college and beyond, the Davidson College Alumni Association honors you with the Alumni Service Award on the occasion of your 10th Class Reunion.