Sarah Beisner ’22 Receives Celina Karp Biniaz Model of Resilience Award
Sarah Beisner ’22 has received the first Celina Karp Biniaz Model of Resilience Award from Grinnell College. The award was established to honor Celina’s courageously hopeful life and legacy.
Celina Karp Biniaz ’52 endowed the award this academic year to support a graduating senior with two key intentions:
- To aid students who had to overcome obstacles to obtain their education, as Karp Biniaz did;
- To recognize and support such students who wish to pursue careers teaching young people OR working for organizations or governmental entities whose core mission focuses on the education and welfare of young people.
Beisner, a class of 2022 graduate from Grinnell, Iowa, and originally from Denton, Texas, majored in psychology and Spanish with the intent of pursuing a graduate degree in social work and public policy.
Beisner is planning for a career in social policy research and advocacy to bring about systemic change in the child welfare system. “I want to help design a society where families have what they need to take care of their kids: affordable, safe housing; access to quality health care; and quality childcare and public education. And if a child really needs to be removed from their home, that the child welfare system can provide a safe, stable, and loving alternative,” Beisner says. She is currently a paralegal at Children’s Rights. While in college, she interned with the Center for Children’s Law and Policy and worked at a residential treatment center for children with severe behavioral challenges.
In addition, Beisner conducted advanced research looking at the experiences of crossover youth who were involved with both the child welfare and youth justice systems in Iowa. She has worked and volunteered with Mid-Iowa Community Action, mentored for psychology research methods, ran track and cross country, and volunteered with elementary school students. Beisner’s commitment to service has also been recognized through her selection as a Truman Scholar and Newman Civic Fellow.
Celina Karp Biniaz was born in Poland in 1931. Her life and education were drastically impacted by World War II. Surviving Plaszow and Auschwitz, she was the youngest child to work in Oskar Schindler’s factory in Czechoslovakia. Following the war, Karp Biniaz’s family joined relatives in the United States, where she graduated from North High School in Des Moines, Iowa, and then attended Grinnell College with a major in philosophy.
Karp Biniaz earned a master’s degree in education at Columbia University and went on to a 27-year career as a teacher. She was a pioneer in the special education field, helping to establish a program of individualized instruction for elementary school students with learning difficulties. She credits the film Schindler’s List, which was released in 1993, with enabling her to find her voice and share her personal experiences of the Holocaust. Celina has traveled the globe, appealing for a rejection of hate, sharing her incredible life experiences and her fervent hope for humanity. For more of her story, visit alumni.grinnell.edu/news/celina-biniaz-model-of-resilience-award-2022 and grinnell.edu/news/defying-darkness.
This is the first recipient of the Celina Karp Biniaz Model of Resilience Award at Grinnell College. The award is advised and administered through Global Fellowships and Awards in the Center for Careers, Life, and Service.