Morgan McDonald, an eighth-grader at Prairie Middle School, was named one of Colorado's top two youth volunteers for 2007 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. Sen. Suzanne Willams, D-Aurora, recognized Morgan's accomplishments during a presentation to the State Senate on Mar. 12.

Morgan was nominated for the Prudential award by Prairie Middle School, because of her work with the school's African-American Student Leadership group. The group works to build leadership skills and improve scholastic achievement among African-American students.

When her principal selected Morgan to be part of the leadership group, Morgan was eager to participate. She met with other group members every week to brainstorm ways to improve their education, challenge students to succeed in school, and change the way that people look at students of color. At Morgan's suggestion, the group made posters highlighting the "achievement gap" among Black, White and Asian students to emphasize the importance of reading, writing, math and science.

Morgan also suggested that the group hold a bake sale on "Back-to-School Night," which helped fund a successful community conference organized by the group. The daylong "Building Leadership in African American Community for Kids Conference," featuring several notable African-American leaders, inspired parents, teachers and students to work together, according to Morgan. "As a result of this experience, I have grown to be serious about school and how well I have to do," Morgan said. "I will remember this for the rest of my life."

As a Prudential state honoree, Morgan receives $1,000, an engraved silver medallion, and an all-expense-paid trip in early May to Washington, D.C., where she will join the top two honorees - one middle level and one high school youth - from each of the other states and the District of Columbia for several days of national recognition events. Ten of them will be named America's top youth volunteers for 2007 at that time.

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program, now in its 12th year, is conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).