Worcester resident Joel Adade Wins Top Award at Hamilton College Class & Charter Day

Clinton, NY (05/13/2021) — Worcester resident and Hamilton College junior Joel Adade received a top prize at Hamilton's Class & Charter Day awards ceremony on May 11. Adade was awarded the Milton F. Fillius Jr./Joseph Drown Prize Scholarship. Established by the Joseph Drown Foundation, it is awarded to a junior who has been very successful academically, has demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities at Hamilton, and who is likely to make a significant contribution to society in the future.

Adade, a Boston Posse Foundation scholar and biochemistry/molecular biology major, was called "a skilled scientist and a natural leader" by a group of nine faculty and administrators who nominated him for the award. "He is brilliant, brave, joyous, energetic, powerful, prescient - something of a superhero, a rare type of person, a game changer. He leads by asking bold, prescient questions of the institutions that surround him; through the same inclination to ask questions, he is drawn to science and excels at it," they wrote.

"We feel he has already made Hamilton a better place and that he will undoubtedly contribute to society in the future; the world will be a better place because of his future leadership," said the nominators.

Adade, a Dean's List student, is a residential advisor and a co-founder of ROOTS, Hamilton's society for students of color in STEM. He has served in the Black and Latinx Student Union, as a student ambassador for the Days-Massolo Center, as co-captain of the HEAT dance team, and was selected for the Was Los honor society. Adade also has been awarded the Charles A. Dana, Ned Doyle, Donald A. Hamilton, and William John Schickler III prize scholarships.

Adade participated in medical research as a summer research fellow where he worked under Dr. Jean-Mark Gauget at the University of Massachusetts Hospital in Worcester to perform retroactive analysis of potential incidents of child abuse.

Another faculty nominator, speaking of Adade's connection with underrepresented students in STEM, said, "Joel excels at the sciences, but to my mind, no one is a more beloved advocate for those who find themselves on the margins of these disciplines. Every student I speak with highlights the fact that were it not for Joel, they don't know how they would make it. Joel connects with his peers and lifts their spirits in ways that strengthen their resolve to press on and succeed in the sciences, and without him, I doubt that our hopes to progress would be as great and as bright."

A faculty member speaking of Adade in his class said, "His questions were persistent and always profound, cutting to the core of the material. Likewise, his energy was infectious and positively transformative for the classroom dynamic. He was a tremendous asset to the course, and you got the impression with Joel, that he was on top of everything you threw at him."

Adade, who hopes to attend medical school, is a graduate of Burncoat Senior High School.

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