{"id":170088,"date":"2025-08-05T16:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T20:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=170088"},"modified":"2025-12-22T15:01:01","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T20:01:01","slug":"president-garry-w-jenkins-wins-maine-black-excellence-compass-career-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2025\/08\/05\/president-garry-w-jenkins-wins-maine-black-excellence-compass-career-award\/","title":{"rendered":"President Garry W. Jenkins wins Maine Black Excellence Compass Career Award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Garry W. Jenkins has received the 2025 Maine Black Excellence Compass Career Award from The Third Place Maine<\/a>, a network that connects Maine\u2019s Black professionals, students, and entrepreneurs to opportunities across multiple areas, from social to professional. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Third Place gives its Compass Career Award in recognition of \u201coutstanding professional achievement, principled leadership, and a commitment to equity and excellence in one\u2019s field.\u201d The nonprofit, which was founded in 2017 by Executive Director Adilah Muhammad, noted that Jenkins, the ninth president of Bates, is also its first Black president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"You
President Garry W. Jenkins receives the 2025 Maine Black Excellence Compass Career Award from Adilah Muhammad, president and executive director of The Third Place Maine. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom the courtroom to the boardroom to the college green, Garry Jenkins has led with integrity, brilliance, and heart,\u201d the group said, citing his record spanning higher education, law, philanthropy, and public service. \u201cHis career is a compass for those navigating the intersections of leadership and justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m deeply touched by this honor, and for this award to be tied to my new home state of Maine,\u201d Jenkins said as he accepted the award at a dinner celebration on a beautiful August evening outdoors at the Caswell Farm and Wedding Barn in Gray. \u201cIt carries special significance because it comes from a community that understands both the challenges we face and the excellence we represent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur democracy and our institutions succeed and flourish when everyone has a seat at the table and has the support and encouragement to shine brightly,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"You
President Jenkins addresses the crowd gathered for the awards ceremony at Caswell Farm and Wedding Barn in Gray, Maine. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jenkins was one of nine honorees that evening<\/a>. He spoke of his pride at leading Bates, citing its rich and unique history of inclusion and legacy of producing remarkable Black leaders through the 20th century and into the 21st century. Specifically, he mentioned John P. Davis, a debater at Bates who graduated in 1926<\/a> and would go on to be a lawyer and pivotal figure in the Harlem Renaissance, and civil rights icon Benjamin Mays, a member of the Class of 1920<\/a>, as well as pioneering television journalist Bryant Gumbel \u201970 and Val Smith \u201975, the president of Swarthmore College<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to make sure that we continue to produce alumni, of all backgrounds, who go on to make a difference to their communities, fields, and institutions,\u201d Jenkins said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His remarks ended with an invitation to attendees to come to Bates, walk on the beautiful campus, visit the museum, and attend theatrical and musical performances as well as athletic competitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"You
President Jenkins speaks after receiving his award. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Among the Bates community members who joined Jenkins at the event were recent graduate Davina Kabantu \u201924, who is a trainee in a bank management development program, Professor Emerita of Politics Leslie Hill, and Morgan Kinney and Mohamed Awil of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships. The Portland Press Herald<\/em> covered the event<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Garry W. Jenkins has received the 2025 Maine Black Excellence Compass Career Award from The Third Place Maine, a network that connects Maine\u2019s Black professionals, students, and entrepreneurs to opportunities across multiple areas, from social to professional.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1283,"featured_media":170086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":["garry-w-jenkins"],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[11011,44,1,30,32,17,11009],"tags":[11051,12334],"class_list":["post-170088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards","category-enewsletter","category-batesnews","category-civic-engagement","category-maine-and-new-england","category-partners-public","category-the-college","tag-bates-in-the-news","tag-garry-w-jenkins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1283"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170088"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171562,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170088\/revisions\/171562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}