The deadline for submitting nominations for the Student Life Leadership Awards — one of the oldest and largest celebrations for Lehigh students outside of the classroom — closed Sunday after several extensions.
The awards, which will be occurring for the 30th time at Lehigh on April 30, look to highlight and recognize the commitment of Lehigh students to leadership, service and the community.
The nomination process is managed by Student Affairs. It is a campus-wide system in which anyone is allowed to nominate other students who embody Lehigh’s key values of excellence, integrity, equitable community, intellectual curiosity, collaboration and leadership.
There are different selection processes depending on the category of the award. For individual awards, there are two committees who select the winners. The first is the university awards and prizes committee, which is made up of representatives from all of Lehigh’s colleges. This committee is usually responsible for selecting the two highest awards. The second selection committee is the student life leadership committee, which chooses the other 12 leadership awards.
For clubs nominated for an award, it is up to the student body as a whole to vote for the club it believes should win. Clubs are nominated based on three separate categories: entertainment, education and diversity. When a club wins, it is awarded $500 toward its activities.
“We want to emphasize that learning happens everywhere at Lehigh, particularly when you get a chance to go out and perform experiential learning activities,” said Allison Gulati, the associate dean of students. “The goal is to recognize the influence it has on Lehigh and what students are able to build through their actions.”
The goal of the awards is not just to recognize the same “typical” winner, but it is also not necessarily designated to the unsung hero. Each and every person on campus has a fair chance at winning any award of which they are deserving.
“We hope to recognize all different sorts of students,” Gulati said. “It is about your depth of involvement, your breadth of involvement and what you are bringing to Lehigh.”
Mytresa Taylor, ’15, won the Strive for Excellence Award last year and said it was an amazing accomplishment for her to be recognized after all of the hard work and time she put into making the Lehigh community better.
“Although Lehigh isn’t perfect it has provided me the opportunity to touch so many different people and have a positive influence on this campus and for that I am truly grateful,” Taylor said.
Pending the weather, the awards will be held on the UC front lawn at the flagpole on April 30 at 4 p.m. According to Gulati, the goal of the awards ceremony is to have as many people attend as possible. Anyone is welcome, and in addition to students, the student life leadership committee encourages the family members of those who are nominated to attend as well.
Alexandra Yantzi, a fifth year student getting her graduate degree from the College of Education, won the James J. Duane III award at the SLLAs last year.
“The student life leadership awards take a moment to recognize some of the hard work, dedication and love that students have for Lehigh,” she said. “Lehigh has given many some incredible opportunities. Opportunities that not only help individuals grow, but help our whole student body grow. There are many students on our campus who do extraordinary things everyday. It’s exciting to be able to recognize these people. ”
Nominations for this year’s SLLAs have closed. For more information on the awards and the ceremony visit: http://www.lehigh.edu/~indost/award.shtml.
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