Recently in Stand Up Award Category

2012 Rock Ethics Institute Stand Up Award Recipient

Julian Haas is tireless in his pursuit of social justice as an advocate, activist, ally, and educator. In addition to founding Penn State's first fraternity for gay, bisexual, and progressive men, he helped plan the first LGBTQA-focused on-campus living community at Penn State. Julian is equally aware of the oppression he faces as a gay man and of the oppression he does not face as a white man. In helping others understand and respond to intersecting forms of oppression, to which they may not otherwise be sensitive, Julian embodies the principles of ethical leadership.

We are often encouraged to think of leaders as people who rise to the occasion in extraordinary circumstances. Anyone with a commitment to changing cultures in which privilege and exclusion are the norm, however, knows that it is more often than not seemingly ordinary, everyday circumstances that call for the extraordinary actions of a leader. Once the need for leadership is widely recognized, any number of people will step forth and express their willingness to take on the task. Being among the first within a group to respond to a call that others are not yet hearing requires a different kind of courage and marks a different kind of leader.