Outstanding Alumni Awards

These awards are presented to alumni of whom the college is particularly proud, who have made outstanding accomplishments in their careers and lives, whether in social service, business, or community service, with service to the college one of the many factors considered. Alumni under consideration for this award must have graduated a minimum of ten years ago. Nominations come from faculty, staff, and alumni. Selection is made by the president of the college.

About the Recipients

Alisa Anderson and her familyALISA ANDERSON, CLASS OF 1999
Alisa has a successful career in adaptive outdoor education and recreation activities for people with disabilities. She has worked for the National Sports Center for the Disabled in Colorado and for Wilderness Inquiry in Minnesota, both known nationally for outdoor sports and recreation programs for people of all abilities. She currently directs the Smugglers' Notch Adaptive Program (SNAP), runs adaptive skiing as well as other winter and summer sports programs. As SNAP director, Alisa has supervised internships of two JSC Outdoor Education majors and has brought her expertise to the program as a guest speaker. She is creative and innovative in her work to expand programming and provide optimal experiences for people of all abilities.


STEVEN PRATT, CLASS OF 1992
"No one has ever been more dedicated to his sport at JSC than Steve was to basketball," writes nominator Josh Wilker, a co-recipient of an Outstanding Alumni Award this year. More important, Steve has gone on to achieve great success as a teacher of the game. In 2000, Steve founded Full Package Athletics in Chicago. The program offers classes and skills camps for basketball leagues and travel teams, speed training, and individual and team training Steve has trained thousands of athletes, including professionals Elton Brand, Brad Miller, Thabo Sefolosha, Brian Cook and Ruth Riley. Every summer Steve prepares college players for the NBA draft.


JOSHUA WILKER, CLASS OF 1990
An accomplished author who lives in Chicago, Josh was nominated for this award by Professor Andrea Perham. His most recent accomplishment is his memoir Cardboard Gods: An All-American Tale, Told Through Baseball Cards (Steven Footer Press, 2010). The memoir was described by author and Red Sox legend Bill Lee as "a growth book, like Catcher in the Rye. People who love baseball will carry this book with them everywhere." A review in The New York Times described it as "a story of brotherly love, survival of the also-ran, and the hope that quickens a kid's heartbeat each time he rips open a fresh pack of baseball cards, gets a whiff of bubble gum, and, holding his breath, sees who he's got as opposed to who and what he needs." Joshua embarked on his writing career after following up his B.F.A. in creative writing from Johnson with an M.F.A. in fiction writing from Vermont College in 1999.