Between the two of them, Andrew Klaber ’04 and Jennifer Staple ’03 have founded a health awareness organization, started a journal, and biked across the United States.

In recognition of their accomplishments, Klaber and Staple were recently named to the USA Today All-USA College Academic First Team and will each receive a $2,500 cash award. Selected from a pool of approximately 500 applicants, they are are two of only 20 four-year college students to receive the award. USA Today established the award in 1990 to recognize students who exhibit scholarship both in and out of the classroom, said Tracey Wong Briggs, coordinator of the USA Today All-USA program.

Klaber, an international studies and ethics, politics and economics major, rows for Yale’s lightweight crew team, serves as the Yale College Council treasurer, and was recently inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He also founded Orphans Against AIDS, a nonprofit organization that provides academic scholarships to Thai children whose parents have died of AIDS.

“I tried to live the Yale experience to the fullest by balancing my work with everything this wonderful place has to offer,” Klaber said.

In addition, Klaber started the Little Economist program at Troup Magnet Academy of Science, a public middle school in New Haven, teaching students consumer and entrepreneurial skills. He is on the editorial board of the Yale Politic, and in 2001 he participated in the Habitat for Humanity Bike Challenge — a 4,200-mile bike trip from New Haven to San Francisco that raised $250,000.

Donald Thompson ’04, Klaber’s former roommate, praised his friend’s sense of balance in life.

“I never cease to be amazed at the number of things Andrew can do in a day — and still find time for the people in his life,” Thompson said in an e-mail. “It’s incredible. This is not the first of his accomplishments, and it won’t be the last.”

Staple, an anthropology and molecular, cellular and developmental biology major, said she received a call from USA Today in late January notifying her that she had won the award.

“I felt honored, humbled and very excited,” said Staple, who plans to attend medical school upon graduation.

Over the course of her Yale career, Staple founded the Journal of Student Anthropology and the Yale Anthropological Society, which hosted a series of lectures in 2001. Currently, she is co-editing a book, which contains a compilation of these lectures.

Staple has also devoted much of her energy to Unite for Sight, a nonprofit organization she founded in September 2000 while working as a clinical ophthalmology research associate. The organization, originally concerned with educating the homeless about glaucoma detection and prevention, has since expanded to include general health education about a number of different ailments, including AIDS.

Anthropology professor Bernard Bate, Staple’s senior thesis adviser, said he always knew Staple was a special individual.

“Jennifer is an extraordinarily intellectually curious and energetic person who has a lot of really terrific ideas and the wherewithal to follow them through to their completion,” Bate said. “She has a desire to do good, to serve people.”