Two members of the Clark community have been awarded the 2025 John W. Lund Community Achievement Award for their significant contributions to the Worcester community. Ryan Saboia ’26 and Geography Professor Rinku Roy Chowdhury were honored by President David Fithian and Joseph Corazzini, vice president for government and community affairs, for their dedication to the city and for serving and uplifting marginalized and underserved populations.
The annual award, first presented in 1994, recognizes faculty, students, and staff whose leadership has had a positive impact on the surrounding Worcester community. The award is made possible by a gift to the Greater Worcester Community Foundation from the late Jack Lund, a retired Worcester business executive, who was a generous supporter of Clark and audited classes at the University for 20 years.
Roy Chowdhury, a professor of geography who received her doctorate from Clark in 2003, was honored for her work in helping to celebrate and protect Worcester’s urban green spaces.
In presenting her with the Lund Award, President Fithian cited Roy Chowdhury’s work with community partners — among them Mass Audubon’s Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary, the Greater Worcester Land Trust, and Worcester Native Plant Initiative — that champion the stewardship of Worcester’s natural lands and green spaces, including in underserved environmental justice neighborhoods.
“Your work epitomizes Jack Lund’s affection for Worcester and his appreciation for Clark’s significant level of community involvement,” Fithian said.
Professor James Murphy, director of the Graduate School of Geography, nominated Roy Chowdhury for the award and noted her deep commitment to making a difference across the city. “She has also been successful in multiplying her impact by additionally fostering and channeling the skills and passion of her students in team-based projects to benefit the community while mobilizing service- and project-based learning.”
“Clark and Worcester are my home, twice over — I was a doctoral student here many years ago, and returned here as a faculty member,” Roy Chowdhury said. “Ours is a truly remarkable, resilient city, rich in cultural diversity as well as natural beauty. Nature — trees, water, wildlife — is all around us and in our urban spaces, and we need it, depend on it for our own individual health as well as that of our community and city.
“Urban biodiversity and land conservation are a strong focus of my research — but more importantly, they are causes I care deeply about. Over the past few years, I have been fortunate to build partnerships with several of our amazing local organizations, who are critical to protecting and connecting our wild and open spaces, and to improving access to them in underserved, ‘greyer’ regions of our post-industrial city. I am grateful to be able to collaborate with our community partners, and deeply honored by this recognition from the university.”
Saboia, a double major in biochemistry and molecular biology and Spanish, was recognized for his extensive volunteer work in the Worcester community during his time at Clark. At AIDS Project Worcester, Saboia advocated for injection drug users in the Syringe Services Program by providing them with sterile and sterilizing resources, education on safe drug usage, and continued clinical care. He also was appointed to a research project on xylazine, a dangerous veterinary tranquilizer that is increasingly being found in illicit drugs and is a leading cause of overdose. He designed APW’s first outreach presentation on the drug, and credits Clark biology professors David Hibbett and Neva Meyer with shaping his understanding of addiction through their classes on opioids, addiction mechanisms, and relapse/recovery patterns.
Saboia was ultimately accepted into APW’s Internship Pathway to Employment Program, where he received training in health and human services and worked in the dementia unit of Christopher House of Worcester. He engaged with non-English-speaking elderly residents to ensure community-building and proper care, organized performances by Clark musical groups, and spearheaded the translation of Christopher House forms and materials into Spanish — which involved collaborating with Professor María Acosta Cruz and her Translation Workshop class (in which Saboia was enrolled).
Since May 2024, Saboia has volunteered with the Worcester Free Care Collaborative as a medical interpreter, providing Portuguese/Spanish-to-English services for patients at the free clinic held at St. Peter’s Church. He also leads the training of incoming interpreters and serves as an advocate for the immigrant population.
“Since my freshman year, I have committed to the Latino community by advocating for immigrants’ access to public health through linguistic accessibility and outreach, bridging cultural and communication gaps,” Saboia said. “I also have strived to extend Clark’s impact within the Worcester community.”
President David Fithian praised Saboia’s “leadership and commitment” in supporting AIDS Project Worcester, Christopher House, and the Worcester Free Care Collaborative. “Your passion and advocacy have exemplified the best of the Clarkie spirit,” Fithian said.
