Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (NYSE: BPI) has announced that Roshawn Ceja, an enrollment advisor at Bridgepoint Education’s Ashford University, has won the 2010 Bridgepoint Hero of the Year award.

Bridgepoint Education is a provider of postsecondary education services focused on providing higher access to higher education. The company also places a strong emphasis on corporate responsibility and giving back to the community. As part of this commitment, Bridgepoint encourages employees to seek out volunteer opportunities and embrace the idea of becoming actively involved in the community. The Bridgepoint Hero of the Year award was created to honor the employee who has volunteered the most hours to charity work each year. The winner of the award receives a trophy and a $1,000 donation to the charity of his or her choice.

Bridgepoint employees logged hundreds of hours of community service in 2010, but the Bridgepoint Hero of the Year award went to Ceja for the 168 hours of service she volunteered in Haiti. In July of 2010, Ceja went on a humanitarian aid trip to the small Caribbean nation that was devastated by a massive earthquake earlier in the year. The trip deeply affected Ceja.

“The whole place is leveled,” Ceja reported. “There’s no infrastructure, no government. Conditions are horrible. You’ll see seven-story buildings that have been flattened to the size of a one-story building. It’s the most upsetting thing you’ll ever see.”

Working with the Child Hope International charity in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince, Ceja pitched in on many different fronts. She assisted with building houses and helped with Child Hope’s feeding program. She also spent a great deal of time working in Child Hope’s orphanage, Maison de Lumiere (The Lighthouse), caring for some of the hundreds of thousands of orphans in Haiti.

“These children are living in abject poverty. Many of them were living on the streets,” Ceja said. “They don’t get a lot of affection. Just spending time with these kids makes a big difference.”

Ceja’s colleagues at Bridgepoint Education and Ashford University supported her efforts in Haiti. Many of her coworkers donated money for the trip. They also brought in clothes and shoes to take to the people of Haiti.

“I loved doing this and I would do it for more than one week a year if I could,” Ceja said. “I don’t feel alive unless I’m helping others.”

Ceja selected Child Hope International to be the beneficiary of the Bridgepoint Hero of the Year award. Bridgepoint Education will donate $1,000 to the organization to continue assisting the displaced children of Haiti. 

About Bridgepoint Education
Bridgepoint Education’s postsecondary education services focus on offering associate's, bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in such disciplines as business, education, psychology, social sciences and health sciences. Bridgepoint Education’s regionally accredited academic institutions – Ashford University and University of the Rockies – deliver their programs online as well as at traditional campuses located in Clinton, Iowa, and Colorado Springs, Colorado. For more information about Bridgepoint Education, visit www.bridgepointeducation.com or call Shari Rodriguez, associate vice president of Public Relations, at 858.668.2580.