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The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and University’s Institute of Politics created the New Frontier Awards in 2004 to honor young Americans under the age of 40 who are changing their communities - and the country - with their commitment to public service.

The two awards are presented annually in the fall to exceptional young Americans whose contributions in elective office, and community service or advocacy demonstrate the impact and the value of public service in the spirit of John F. Kennedy.

The New Frontier Award for contributions in elective office honors an elected official whose work demonstrates the impact of elective service as a way to address public challenges. The New Frontier Award for contributions in community service or advocacy honors a non-elected individual whose contributions in the realm of community service, advocacy or grass roots activism have elevated the debate or changed the landscape with respect to a public issue or issues.

The New Frontier Awards are named after President Kennedy's bold challenge to Americans given in his acceptance speech to the Democratic National Convention on July 15, 1960

We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier…a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils -- a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats. The New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises -- it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. It appeals to their pride, not to their pocketbook -- it holds out the promise of more sacrifice instead of more security…Beyond that frontier are the uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus. It would be easier to shrink back from that frontier, to look to the safe mediocrity of the past, to be lulled by good intentions and high rhetoric…but I believe the times demand new invention, innovation, imagination, decision. I am asking each of you to be pioneers on that New Frontier.

The New Frontier Awards are symbolized by a ship’s navigational compass in a wooden box bearing the inscription: “We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier…I believe the times demand new invention, innovation, imagination, decision. I am asking each of you to be pioneers on that New Frontier. – John F. Kennedy.”

A distinguished bipartisan committee of political and community leaders select the recipients based on their contributions to the public and their embodiment of the forward-looking public idealism to which President Kennedy hoped young Americans would aspire.

The John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award Committee is co-chaired by former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen, Director, Institute of Politics; and John Shattuck, CEO, John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, former U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic, and former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Committee members for 2005-06 are: Jennifer Armini, communications consultant and marketing director, The Mentor Network; Melanie Campbell, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, former IOP Fellow; Ranny Cooper, President and COO of Public Affairs for Weber Shandwick; Dan Fenn, former member of President John F. Kennedy’s staff, and former Director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum; Trey Grayson, Secretary of State, Kentucky; Elaine C. Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government; Rachel Kaprielian, Member, House of Representatives, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1999 Recipient, Dan Fenn Award; Larry Kessler, Founding Director, AIDS Action Committee, former member, National Commission on AIDS; Vivien Li, Executive Director, Boston Harbor Foundation; Susan Page, Washington Bureau Chief, USA Today; and Eli Segal, Founding CEO, AmeriCorps.

The New Frontier Award for elected officials is a continuation of the Fenn Award, which has been presented annually by the Kennedy Library Foundation to young Massachusetts elected officials in honor of Dan Fenn, the Kennedy Library’s first director and a former member of President Kennedy’s staff.

The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and Harvard University’s Institute of Politics both have their origins in the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, Inc., a non-profit corporation that was chartered in Massachusetts on December 5, 1963, to construct and equip the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Massachusetts.

For more information read our brochure or contact Newfrontier@nara.gov.