Paul Laurence Dunbar Library | Photo by Soham Parikh | The Wright State Guardian
Students with exceptional leadership skills were recognized at the virtual Student Leadership Awards on April 8.
This is the 36 year that the event was held, and the second year that it was done virtually. Program Manager for Leadership in the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership Jeremy Keller hosted it through WebEx.
Virtual celebrations
The Student Leadership Awards serves as an end-of-year celebration where all of the work that student leaders, advisors and organizations put in over the school year is recognized.
According to Keller, one of the most prestigious awards given is the Senior Leader Award.
“It gives them a chance to be highlighted of all the things they’ve done over their entire undergraduate career at Wright State,” Keller said. “Their [award] doesn’t just focus on one school year, but rather their entire leadership experience while they’ve been here.
Each award category has a committee assigned to it that consists of two faculty or staff and one student. These committees decide which nominees for a category receive that award.
“In years past, it’s been harder to find that three or four-person committee who can all meet at the same time and all sit down together for a half-hour and fully go through everybody,” Keller said. “This has helped to expedite that, and I think that’s something we may be keeping as we move back to it in person.”
Keller says that there are two important qualities, ingenuity and passion, that each recipient of their respective awards has.
“[They have] a passion and drive to leave their organization in a better spot than it was when they started, not necessarily when they took on this position but when they first joined the organization,” Keller said.
Award recipients
Student Body President Adrian Williams received the Distinguished Senior Leader Award, with the other recipients of Senior Leader awards being Nicole Oller, Chiemeka Okafor, Alexandria Applin, Lacey Loges, Reilly Corbett, Eli Smith, Brooke Neal, Taylor Ronnebaum and Tina Hohman.
The Distinguished Established Student Leader Award went to Makenzie Hoeferlin. Recipients of Established Student Leader Awards were Roxanne Roessner, Nick BenVenuto, Destiny Ellars, Dylan Hall, Sydney McGilton, Garrett Regan, Shanice White, Shea Neal, and Alexis Wisler.
Neal, the upcoming general manager of WWSU, was surprised to receive this award but is excited to get to know some of the other nominees and recipients.
“I didn’t really think that I would be in that conversation with some of those amazing leaders and talented individuals on campus just because I’d never really thought of myself as one of the leaders of this organization, but it’s an honor and I’m very humbled,” Neal said.
The Distinguished Emerging Student Leader Award went to Kaci Lovejoy, and Jake Wells received the Distinguished Graduate Student Leader Award.
The Advisor of the Year award went to Dr. Joy Gockel, who is the faculty advisor for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Faculty Senate President Dr. Laura Luerhmann received Student Supporter of the Year.
Student Organization of the Year went to the Collegiate eSports Club and the club’s president, Ryan Slater, received an Advanced Student Leader award.
“If you are trying to be a good leader, surround yourself with people that are smarter than you,” Slater said. “If you can, as a leader, succeed in bringing people in who will be able to run the club without you there, that’s all I think you really need to do.”
