Student leader accomplishments honored at ceremony

On Sunday Minnesota State gave out awards in 13 different categories at its 20th annual Student Leadership Awards Ceremony to bring attention to accomplishments of student leaders.

“This university wouldn’t be anything without our student leaders. Our world and student activities depend on a vibrant campus where student leaders step up, they take leadership positions, and they leave their group to make it better and to add things on a regular basis for our community,” said Mark Constantine, director of the Centennial Student Union and Student Activities, in his remarks at the beginning of the ceremony.

Student leaders were given awards for their contributions to the campus. Many of the awards given to students were for demonstrating leadership characteristics and traits such as commitment to diversity, volunteer work and civic responsibility.

Awards included the Outstanding Recognized Student Organization, Outstanding Campus Volunteer, and the Scott Hagebak Centennial Student Union Hall of Fame.

A buffet consisting of food, cake and drinks was available to attendees.

In interviews after the ceremony awardees had various reactions to their winning awards and spoke to different motivations that drove them to take on leadership roles.

“I always love to be involved and be a voice to represent thousands of students on campus and for me it’s just an honor to see a problem and step up to be a leader,” said Victor Nguyan, winner of the Unsung Hero award.

Nomin Sanadheera was the winner of the Scott Hagebak Centennial Student Union Hall of Fame award and spoke about his growth as an individual.

”I’m very happy that people actually saw the commitment that I’ve had and I’m also happy that I grew into a person that deserved this award. Because when I first came here, I was not very outgoing, I was not very involved,” said Senadheera.

Emily Dietrich was one of the winners of the Outstanding Collegian award, and spoke about how her initial motivation to get more involved on campus came from being a nontraditional student.

“The initial inspiration was to get involved on campus because as a nontraditional student and off campus my goal was to stay on campus as long as I possibly could every single day, because I knew if I went home, I would never do my homework,” said Emily Dietrich, winner of the Outstanding Collegian award.

Dietrich also emphasized the importance of students getting involved with on campus activities.

”Students who haven’t been out in the world yet don’t realize that the opportunities that they have in college right now is the biggest culmination of those opportunities that you’re ever gonna have. It would just be the worst thing ever to not take advantage of that,” said Dietrich.

Header photo: The 20th annual Student Leadership Award Ceremony gave out awards to 13 different categories to honor student leaders across campus. (Jeremy Redlien/The Reporter)

Write to Jeremy Redlien at Jeremy.redlien@mnsu.edu