The alumna, whose volunteer work spans 16 years, received the award at Reunions in June.
By Cara Nixon
October 1, 2026
The alumni volunteer positions alea adigweme ’06 has held take up 15 lines on a page. But Reed’s Director of Alumni Relations & Parent Engagement Aurore Giguet says though that list captures the breadth and longevity of her involvement, it doesn’t quite convey the full impact of her service over the years.
alea, this year’s Babson Society Outstanding Volunteer Award winner, has volunteered in various capacities for Reed since 2010, starting out as an admission alumni volunteer and then moving through multiple other positions, including reunion committee volunteer, alumni chapter event host, and even Alumni Board president during the pandemic. She’s also served on the peer mentor program advisory board and as an alumni trustee, but one of her key contributions was cofounding the Alumni Board’s Diversity and Inclusions Committee.
“alea helped create a framework for alumni to speak openly about identity, belonging, and their experiences at Reed,” Aurore says.
Volunteering at Reed hasn’t always been easy, alea says. It has taken personal sacrifice to dedicate as much time and resources as she has to the college.
“At the same time, to have believed so firmly, as I have and do, in both the mission of Reed College and its duty to do right by all of its students has meant that giving up on this work has never felt like an option for me,” alea says.
And in the times she felt like quitting, it was her experiences with marginalized Reedies that reminded her of why the Reed community is so important to help protect.
“From conceptualizing and starting this work alone in the metaphorical volunteer hinterlands, to finding kindred spirits to share in the labor, to witnessing long-overdue institutional cultural shifts and seeing structures arise where there previously were none, much has changed over the last sixteen years and receiving the Babson Award feels both like it was impossible and like a full-circle moment,” alea says.
The intergenerational friendships she’s built as a volunteer have also been particularly rewarding, as she’s been able to support students through their undergraduate careers and advocate for change alongside older alumni who have seen Reed in its many phases and iterations.
In late June, alea was given the Babson Award at Reunions, which also marked alea’s 20th class reunion.
In her acceptance speech, alea encouraged other Reedies to get involved as a volunteer, to “help steward an institution that continues to value rigor, criticality, and imagination.” She also reminded them that Reed is not only shaped by its leaders, but by its community.
“It's faculty, staff, and the long lineage of brilliant students who shape and are shaped by everything that happens at 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd,” she said.