Nora Tobin, a 2010 graduate of Iowa State, has been named to USA Today’s 2010 All-USA College Academic First Team.

Tobin is 1 of 20 winners chosen from hundreds of juniors and seniors nominated by colleges nationwide.

USA Today honors students that excel academically, while also extending “their reach beyond the classroom to benefit society.”

Tobin graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in political science and international studies.

Among her awards for grades and leadership, was being named a Wallace E. Barron All-University senior, being a member of Phi Beta Kappa national honor society for liberal arts and sciences and a member of Cardinal Key, Iowa State’s senior honor society.

Tobin’s time at Iowa State went beyond just making the grades.

“I want to be the kind of person who leaves each place I live a better place than I found it,” Tobin said in the USA Today article.

While at Iowa State, Tobin interned with many programs, including the World Food Prize, the Office for Institutional HIV Coordination in South Africa and National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

Also, Tobin was president of Iowa State’s ONE campaign, and conducted research with the ISU Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods. She was co-chairwoman of the Committee on World Affairs, was a global ambassador for the Study Abroad Center and served in several leadership positions with St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Ames.

Along with her studies, she also traveled abroad to help others. In 2007, Tobin traveled to Uganda with the Uganda Women Concern Ministry, supervising high school students on a construction site. Also, as a member and co-chairwoman of the Honduras Ministry Committee, she led a service immersion trip to Honduras in 2008.

“She is a leader who inspires others by example, and is sure to become one of Iowa State’s most distinguished graduates,” said Dana Schumacher, University Honors Program assistant director for research and scholarship, in a news release.

With her passion to help people, Tobin and her sister created “AID the Orphans,” a program that focused on raising high school students’ awareness of AIDS while raising money for African children orphaned by AIDS.

On campus, she served as 2006-2007 co-chairwoman of the VEISHEA Leadership Scholarship Committee. Tobin was chairwoman of the ISU World Affairs Series and was involved with Iowa State’s Committee on Lectures, as well as being active in the Service and Justice Team to lend support to local service projects in Ames.

Right now, Tobin is the Africa Programs associate for International Student Exchange Programs; a Washington, D.C.-based organization that coordinates study abroad exchange programs for students from more than 300 universities in 42 countries.