Weinberg senior Michael Chanin was working out at the Evanston Athletic Club when his phone rang in the locker room. By the time he realized he’d missed a call, it was too late to call the USA Today reporter back.

He didn’t find out until the next morning that he was one of 20 students selected from a pool of 600 for the newspaper’s 2006 All-USA College Academic First Team.

Chanin co-founded the Northwestern University Conference on Human Rights as a sophomore. The program invites students and leaders from around the world to participate in a four-day conference that focuses on one international issue.

“I was surprised,” said Chanin, an American studies and history double major. “To be recognized for (work) that I find socially and culturally important gives me validation for the work I’ve done around campus. It keeps me motivated to continue it and carry forth.”

Students were chosen based on academic merit, extracurricular commitment and community contributions, Chanin said. Each student received a trophy and a $2,500 scholarship.

Founding the Conference on Human Rights was his biggest accomplishment at NU.

“On a broad level, the conference seeks to educate the campus community,” Chanin said. “There aren’t many opportunities in this country for undergraduates to talk to international leaders about these specific rights issues and about how to effectively deal with them on a local level.”

Now in its third year, this year’s conference is centered on human trafficking and has expanded to include a student-organized course, a film series and an art exhibit.

American Studies Prof. Carl Smith, who recommended Chanin, said Chanin’s combination of intelligence, organization, leadership and idealism made him a shoo-in for the award.

“What I find most remarkable is his combination of attributes and skills, including his ability to direct these skills toward significant academic achievement and meaningful social action,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Smith also said Chanin’s personality was noteworthy.

“He is exceptionally polite,” Smith wrote. “After three years of trying, I have finally given up on getting him to stop calling me ‘sir.’ I am also very grateful for his pointing out to me that my cell phone can be used as a calculator.”

Dana Foley, a Weinberg senior, credits Chanin for the conference’s success.

“It is what it is because of a combination of Michael’s will power, intelligence and selflessness,” said Foley, who is on the conference’s executive board.

Chanin became interested in human rights issues as a high school student in Macon, Ga. As a “liberal Jew of the South,” he said he was particularly interested in the Civil Rights movement and issues of race and inequality.

“I realized that being informed and informing others is an entry-level criteria for being an informed and engaged member of society,” he said.

Chanin was also on the executive committee for the International Youth Volunteerism Summit and is a member of the NU Darfur Action Coalition.

Outside of his human rights work, Chanin can rattle off the line-up of the 1991 Atlanta Braves and collects Pulitzer Prize-winning books. He’s bought and read all fiction novels that have won the award since 1917, and has since moved on to history. He plans to study development at the London School of Economics next year.

He isn’t the only NU student to be recognized for the award, said Chris Hager, Assistant Director of the Office of Fellowships. Communication senior Blake Bible was named to the College Academic Third Team. Weinberg senior Jodi Anderson received an honorable mention. Bible is on the Students Publishing Company board, which oversees The Daily.

Former ASG president Jane Lee, Weinberg ’05, was selected for the Academic First Team last year, and Cristina Bejan, Weinberg ’04, was also on the team.

“This recognition is a testament to the wide range of ambitions on this campus,” Hager said. “It shows the unique combination of intellectual power and extracurricular interest that Northwestern students have.”

Hager spoke highly of Chanin from working with him at the Office of Fellowships. Chanin was also a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship.

“He’s one of the most intelligent, one of the most curious, one of the most effective students who can pull off an ambitious event like the human rights conference,” Hager said.

His peers had similar praise.

“He’s just a really funny, down-to-earth guy who happens to have a very courageous heart and who happens to be able to do so much with his passion,” Foley said.

Reach Abha Bhattarai at [email protected].