The Sandspur

Issue date: 4/29/05 Section: News

Media Credit: Mark Bartschi

This year's eighth annual Leadership Recognition Banquet was rained out even before the ceremony began. After moving the banquet from the Mary Jean Plaza outside the bookstore to the DownUnder, the banquet was saved, thanks to savvy leadership on the LEAD team's part. (Not to mention the clever weather forecasting ability of the Weather Channel!)

The ceremony began with a Senior Keynote address from Sarah Ledbetter. She opened the ceremony with an inspirational and moving speech about her experience at Rollins and how much it has meant to her. Immediately following her keynote address, she was awarded the N. Ronald Pease Award, which is given each year to a senior that exemplifies the most admirable aspects of the class.

While Ledbetter's award surprised few attendees, the next presenter, Lara Bueso, found it much harder to keep the award recipient a secret for long. Yet as she told of more and more admirable aspects of the person, she slipped with a gendered term in her excitement, giving away the fact that the award recipient was a girl! (She was presenting the Enabling Others to Act award to Tessie Swope)

Bueso was not alone in giving away the award recipient before the presentation: for three awards in a row the name of the organization who received the award was written in the presenter's speech! (It did, however, save the audience a lot of energy that would have been spent on suspense and surprises.)

There were two new awards presented, one presented by Lauren Ervin called the Living for Students award, and another presented by Doug Little called the Service to First Year Students award. The first award, Living for Students, was awarded to Rina Tovar for her beneficial programs and speakers she has brought to campus all year. In her presentation of the award, Lauren spoke of what a positive impact Rina has had on campus.

In his presentation the Service to First Year Students award, Doug Little began with an apology for having the longest and most boring award presentation of the night.

Even with the longer speeches, the banquet was a night of recognition and appreciation for the leaders among leaders on campus. The most memorable aspect of the fun-filled night was the jokes and laughter. One person who really did appreciate Doug's lengthy speech, Dean Roger Casey, joked, "Thanks Doug for your long speech. For once I won't be the longest speaker!"

Award Recipients

N. Ronald Pease Award

Sarah Ledbetter

Enabling Others to Act

Theresa Swope

Living for Others

Jennifer Perez

Encouraging the Heart

Joanna Leung

Collaboration for Common Good

The Sandspur

Engaging for Social Change

Non Compis Mentis

Spectacular Social Program

WPRK

Inspiring a Shared Vision

V-Day

Living for Students

Rina Tovar

Service to First-Year Students

Sarah Ledbetter &Nikkia Gumbs

Challenging the Process

Krystal Delle Chiae

Discovering the Purpose

Shaniqua Law

Inspiring Change

Amanda Moon

Modeling the Way

Erin Miller

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