Full Name of the Individual Nominee: John Smith

Nominee UDel Email: jsmithxxx@udel.edu

Please state clearly why this individual deserves recognition at the YoUDee Leadership Awards.

I am excited and pleased to nominate John Smith, Vice president of the Awesome Congress at UD for the outstanding leader award.

I have known John for 2 years and have watched him exemplify stellar leadership and commitment within the roles he serves. John is focused, analytical and determined.

John is a dynamic leader. In addition to his position as VP for the Awesome Congress, he is also the president of the Amazing Organization. He previously served as the programs and recruitment chair for the Awesome Congress at UD as well as treasurer for his other organization.

John has been my right-hand-man throughout my tenure as president of the congress. Whenever I needed a co-host or could not attend a meeting, John was always there to help and facilitate the meetings. John attended all but one general body meeting and has never missed an executive board meeting. Dependable, reliable, committed are all adjectives that characterize John as an individual and leader.

What distinguishes John is his inquisitive attitude and diverse perspective. John challenges decisions and analyzes the options. Whenever there was a discrepancy or issue that the executive board needed a solution to, he asked great questions to facilitate the process and always kept things in perspective. If we digressed, John was there to bring the focus back to the goal and what we were trying to achieve. His pragmatic approach has been invaluable this year, as we have had to overcome and address various issues and make tough decisions as an executive board to ensure the Awesome Congress is operating in conjunction with its constitution.

The main responsibility of the vice president is to coordinate the annual event. John did a phenomenal job at maintaining professionalism throughout the process. He handled the paperwork including the event contracts and allocation requests. The step show was a sold-out event and the participation from UD organizations was greater than it had been in recent years. In addition to planning the event, he performed in it.

It is with great enthusiasm that I highly recommend John Smith for the outstanding leader award. His skillset and personality have been essential to the executive board and helping to improve the operations of the Awesome Congress at UD. John is truly exemplary of an outstanding leader!

Title: The Best Event Ever

Date(s): The Past

Start Time: 3:00 p.m.

End Time: 6:00 p.m.

Location: Mitchell Hall

Estimated Attendance: 350

Was this even co-sponsored by another organization: Yes

Please state clearly why this event and/or program deserves recognition at the YoUDee Leadership Awards.

Our organization exists to plans programs that represent the interests of the campus community through social, cultural and educational programming. Leading into the fall semester, America witnessed what was considered “the trial of the century”. The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin committed by George Zimmerman resurfaced and reignited conversations about race and left us wondering how we evaluate race and the presence of race in American society.

Adhering to the mission of organization, we wanted an event that would place an emphasis on educating communities where people from different communities can learn from each other. As a response to George Zimmerman’s acquittal, we wanted to forge a forum to address race and the criminal justice system, and the result was the Best Event Ever. Knowing that the trial reignited the subject of race, we wanted to have co-sponsors and supporters of this program. The additional supporters were: __________. Representatives from other RSOs and Greek Organizations met for about two months to serve on the planning committee to present this conversation in a respectable, informative and effective manner.

The Best Event Ever sought to engage a diverse audience in a discussion on the role of race in contemporary society. The event included a keynote by Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, host of HuffPost Live and Our World with Black Enterprise, and Associate Professor of Education at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

After Dr. Hill, we continued the conversation so a panel discussion followed. Moderated by Dr. Donald Morton, President and CEO, Ankh Renaissance Corporation, the panelists included: Dr. Yaba Belay, assistant professor of Africana Studies at Drexel University, Dr. Armando Lara-Milan, Postdoctoral Fellow, Sociology/Criminology at the University of Delaware and Felecia J. Rose, Esquire a lawyer at Obermayer, Rebmann, Maxwell & Hippell, LLP.

Lasting for three hours, the forum was held in Mitchell Hall. We had a crowd of over 350 people. It was a diverse crowd. We received countless comments on the production of the forum, the keynote speaker and the panelists. This particular program was an educational event and our attendees left the event with new knowledge as Dr. Hill and the panelists addressed how to introduce the conversations in everyday conversations with regular people and how to affirm different racial identities.

Flyer was included in nomination.

Organization: We Rock Organization

Please state clearly why this organization deserves recognition at the YoUDee Leadership Awards.

We Rock Organization is deserving of the Outstanding Overall Achievement Award at the YoUDee Leadership Awards this year due to the intentional and continuous efforts made in overall chapter improvement. With the input of all chapter members, the executive board of We Rock Organization created an action plan to foster growth in all areas of the chapter, including improving chapter morale, unity and confidence, communication, PR, on-campus visibility, values-congruence, member retention and recruitment. The mission statement for this year was to “grow into a positive, unified and constructive chapter with social presence on campus in order to recruit more values-congruent members for life.” This statement was broken down into six goals, each of which had several tangible action items to work toward the goal. In one year, the chapter completed over 90 percent of the planned action items and has made measurable progress, including moving from 10/10 to 6/11 in GPA Rankings, as well as improving performance outcomes in formal recruitment by 288% in one year. Internally, the chapter has experienced major improvements in chapter morale, cohesion and confidence. These improvements were possible because of the hard work of all chapter members, not solely the executive board.

We Rock Organization also demonstrates outstanding involvement within the larger University community. In July 2013, a member of We Rock Organization had the opportunity to travel to Africa with the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation to break ground on a school for a community in need. In Fall 2013, We Rock Organization proceeded to co-sponsor an event with the Panhellenic Council to promote the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation and educate the community on the importance of educating girls worldwide through the story of this member’s experience in Africa over the summer. As of Spring 2014, We Rock Organization is in the process of planning a viewing of “Half the Sky,” a documentary promoting the mission of the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation and highlighting the importance of empowering girls and women worldwide. The event will be open and promoted to the entire university community. As demonstrated here, We Rock Organization has gone beyond the level of average involvement and has been proactive and intentional in promoting UD’s Philanthropy and educating the university community.