Students Recognize Peers With Awards
By Natalia Pavlina
The Bucky Awards, a completely student-run award ceremony, will be held this year for the first time to honor students and organizations that have shown outstanding leadership, determination, dedication and service to Santa Clara's community.
The idea developed during a workshop of Santa Clara's student organizations.
Jack Schneeman, senior finance major and student government senate chair, stated that the motivation behind the new awards was to provide students with the chance to give and receive acknowledgement for having a positive influence in the community.
"We felt it would shine a light on and commend some of our outstanding students and organizations that don't really get the recognition they deserve," said Schneeman.
The awards will have 11 different categories including "Bronco of the Year" and "Best Event of the Year." All awards will be distributed in each academic school within the university.
Students were asked to email Schneeman with suggestions of students or organizations they feel deserve an award, and attach a short 100-word or fewer explanation as to why they should be honored.
"Specifics are left up to the students because we didn't want to constrain the awards to certain traits or characteristics," said Schneeman. "For example, Bronco of the Year is someone you think best represents what you believe Santa Clara stands for whether that's academics, compassion, service, school spirit, industriousness, etc."
The nomination period ended this past Friday, and judges are sifting through emails from students and compiling the possible award nominees.
In the next week or two, the nominees for the Bucky Awards will be announced, and the student government will send out a school-wide survey to decide on the winners. Elections will most likely take place during Week 6 or 7.
The award ceremony itself is still being planned by ASG and other student organization leaders. The date is predicted to be sometime between Weeks 8 and 10.
Contact Natalia Pavlina at npavlina@scu.edu or call 408-554-4852.