UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.-- Blake Toliver, a senior majoring in English and criminology in the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State, is the recipient of the 2022 Jackson Lethbridge Tolerance Award. 

The award recognizes a junior, senior or graduate student for outstanding efforts to enhance the understanding of diverse cultures and create a community where all individuals are accepted and valued equally. The award is named for its benefactor, a Penn State alumnus. 

Nominators said Toliver is an exceptional student who remains active in learning about diverse cultures and helping the under-represented. Toliver is a Paterno Fellow and master of public policy student. 

The Schreyer Scholar participated in the International Scholar Laureate Program Delegation on International Relations and Diplomacy where he traveled to Johannesburg to study the diplomacy, the economy and the politics of South Africa.

Toliver is president of the Multicultural Undergraduate Law Association, which strives to diversify the legal field by hosting resume and personal statement workshops, professional speakers and law school visits. In that role, he’s spokesperson for the organization, oversees all statements released to the public, presides over meetings and serves as a mediator between all other positions.  

Toliver was the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) chair for the Black Caucus. In this role, he hosted numerous roundtables on racial injustice on campus, publicly spoke out about Zoom bombings that targeted the Black Caucus, led an initiative supplying first-generation students with school supplies, and advocated to secure funding for the annual Black graduation event through UPUA, and worked collaboratively with other representatives to get “you belong here” banners displayed in downtown State College. Those efforts earned Toliver the Paul Robeson Cultural Center Humanitarian Award. 

“As faculty members, our knowledge of Blake leans towards his academic record,” a nominator said. “However, we learned of his extensive leadership, almost all in programs or initiatives that involve the formation of a peer community to foster excellence among fellow students, especially students from historically under-represented communities.”