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CORVALLIS - Four Oregon State University students have each received $5,000 and earned recognition as the 2004 winners of OSU's College of Liberal Arts Leadership in Social Change Award.

Portland residents Clinton Downs and Kiera Bethwiller; Lebanon resident Cody Donahue and Dallas resident Erin Sutherland, will use the cash to support internships with progressive social change organizations.

The awards are made possible through a $20,000 annual gift from OSU alumnus James Wiggett of San Francisco. This is the third year of awards.

Downs is a junior in sociology with a minor in Japanese. His studies focus on social change, social justice and the social construction of identity. He has worked on campus at the Queer Resource Center as the external coordinator for 18 months and serves as a project coordinator with Associated Students of OSU. In the fall he plans to attend Waseda University in Japan and graduate in June 2005.

He is interning this summer with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in New York and Ohio.

Sutherland is a senior in sociology, with a minor in Spanish, and will graduate in December.

She is interning this summer at Menores en Situacion Extraordinaria (Minors in Extraordinary Situations) in Morelia, Mexico, and will evaluate the programs for their effectiveness.

Bethwiller, a junior in sociology with a minor in Spanish has been abroad in Spain participating in a language intensive course for 10 weeks; she attended a Spanish immersion elementary school in Portland where she started learning Spanish at the age of 5. This summer she's working with Portland's Community Alliance of Tenants where she will work on the Safe Housing Program.

Donahue is a senior in political science. He will intern with the non-profit West Africa humanitarian group Tostan through December. Tostan, which means "breakthrough" in Wolof, is based in Senegal and works with communities around West Africa to provide education programs in health and human rights.