Randolph’s Pearl S. Buck Award is given to women who exemplify the ideals, values, and commitments of Buck, a member of the Class of 1914, and the first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The award was first introduced in 1998 and was given sporadically until 2024. The award is now presented in alternating years with the Quillian Visiting International Scholars Program.
About Pearl S. Buck
Buck is known for her humanitarian work and for being a champion of civil rights, women’s rights, children’s rights, and the rights of those with disabilities long before these issues were talked about in public.
Her book, The Good Earth, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, offered a description of life in a Chinese peasant village and included perspectives of women who lived and experienced everyday hardships. Her tireless efforts to increase understanding between Asia and America left a lasting imprint on the world.
2024 Pearl S. Buck Award Recipient
Jetsun Pema
Former president of the Tibetan Children’s Villages and younger sister of His Holiness the 14th Daiai Lama
Jetsun Pema has dedicated her life to educating Tibetan children in exile. From 1964 to 2006, Pema served as president of the Tibetan Children’s Villages, which take in and care for orphaned, destitute, and refugee children.
Today, TCV projects include five children’s villages with attached schools, seven residential schools, seven day schools, ten day care centers, four vocational training centers, four youth hostels, four homes for the elderly, and an outreach program for over 2,000 children in exile.
For her tireless work on behalf of children, the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile recognized Pema as “The Mother of Tibet”.
Jetsun Pema receives the 2024 Pearl S. Buck Award during a ceremony at Randolph College
Former Pearl S. Buck Award Recipients
- 1998 Corazon Aquino, former president of the Philippines
- 2000 Sheikh Hasina, former prime minister of Bangladesh
- 2001 Jehan Sadat, former first lady of Egypt
- 2003 Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland
- 2004 Maya Lin, artist and designer responsible for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- 2016 Maxine Hong Kingston, acclaimed Chinese-American author
- 2024 Jetsun Pema, former president of the Tibetan Children’s Villages and younger sister of His Holiness the 14th Daiai Lama