The Yale Medal, considered the most prestigious award given by the Association of Yale Alumni, was presented to five alumni at a dinner Thursday night.

The medal is awarded to alumni in recognition of their dedication to the University through outstanding volunteer service. This year, J. Kirk Casselman ’68, Rowan Claypool ’80, Maureen Doran NUR ’71, Paul Joskow GRD ’72 and Nicholas Spinelli ’41 MED ’44 joined the list of Yale Medal recipients, whose names are carved into the walls in Commons.

AYA Chair Edward Dennis spoke about each of the recipients’ service to the community, and Yale President Richard Levin presented the medals at the end of the dinner, which was held in Commons.

“The people who have won the Yale Medal are in a certain way mere symbols of the work you all do,” Levin said at the dinner. “All of you are contributing to helping this great university be all that it can be.”

Casselman founded the Adopt-a-School program that pairs alumni volunteers with local schools, and Claypool started the Bulldogs in the Bluegrass internship program for undergraduates in Louisville, Ky.

Doran, who won the Yale School of Nursing’s medal in 2002, is a former chair of AYA, and Joskow served as the president of the University Council for 12 years. Spinelli was an alumni leader for both his class of 1941 and the Yale School of Medicine.

The five recipients were announced in September.