According to a release from Atchison-based Benedictine College, the World Youth Alliance, an advisor to the United Nations, presented Williams with its Mary R. Smith Award on March 5 at the organization’s annual gala in New York.
The release explains that Williams, who received undergraduate and graduate education degrees from Benedictine in 2000 and 2007, began implementing the Human Dignity Curriculum in 2022, first at Atchison’s Central School and later at Atchison High School, making Atchison the first public school in the country to adopt the program. The curriculum is described as a World Youth Alliance program taught in countries around the world and translated into dozens of languages, designed to teach students about their inherent dignity and worth and to give them vocabulary to understand it.
The release says the curriculum is taught locally by Kerra Downing and supported by Benedictine College students in the John Paul II Fellows program, who assist in classrooms and mentor students.
According to the college, Williams previously presented on the curriculum’s impact at the United Nations in 2024.
Williams, next week, will be the guest of 93.7 FM during Co-Host Monday, around 7:20 this coming Monday morning.
