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CORVALLIS - An Oregon State University student from Monmouth has earned the campus' Allworth Cultural Awareness Leadership Award.

Tala Madani, a junior in fine arts, was honored for her leadership in development of cultural awareness on the OSU campus.

The award is named for Edward C. Allworth, OSU Memorial Union director from 1924-1963. The Memorial Union, with a bookstore, ballroom, study lounges, meeting rooms and dining and recreational facilities, is a hub of campus life.

A 1999 graduate of Monmouth's Central High School, Madani first came to OSU as part of Jumpstart, a three-week summer workshop for teens that focuses on accelerated art instruction in traditional art forms, including drawing, painting, sculpture, photography and printmaking, and non-traditional fields, such as design structures, digital photography, graphic design, illustration and video.

Her success in the program led to the OSU Department of Art awarding Madani a full scholarship to Oregon State.

Madani has served as president of OSU's Iranian Student Association and as assistant director of the MU Program Council's Leadership Committee. The committee provides learning experiences and networking opportunities for students throughout the year and also plans OSU's annual Woman's Leadership Conference.

This year, Madani was an OSU delegate to the Model Arab League, a program funded by the National Council of Arab-U.S. Relations. The event, similar to the Model United Nations, is structured after the actual Arab League, established in 1945 as a way to promote cooperation between Arab countries and as a forum for social, economic and political issues. Through the model, students from each university choose an Arab country to represent and write resolutions, or statements of action, that they would like to pass. Madani represented Palestine.

Madani has also helped organize two benefit dances - one to aid earthquake relief efforts in India and a second to raise money for the United Nations Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.