Madison College will recognize students and advisors on Thursday, April 25, 2013 at the Annual Celebration of Student Success. Attendees will gather from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the Truax campus’ Redsten Gym.

The Executive Leadership Team (ELT), comprised entirely of student representatives from various clubs, has been planning the banquet since December 2012.

Stacy Dayton is the manager of the ELT. Advised by Lori Ericksen of Student Life, she and her team have been reviewing nominations for approximately 13 awards that will recognize students for leadership and academic support roles.

Dayton said that, once students are nominated, a committee of both ELT members and staff advisors review the nominees’ commentary about the student and, subsequently, decide the award winners.

“A lot of people think it’s about numbers, but it really depends on what the statements say,” Dayton said.

Dayton and her team reviewed many competitive nominations this year. She recalled that The Karen Roberts Student Life Leadership Award for Outstanding Student of the Year received the most applications.

“We have five winners for that,” Dayton said. “It’s very focused on leadership, both on and off campus.”

In addition to recognizing students in such categories as community service, tutoring and ethnic diversity inclusion, the ceremony will also spotlight Madison College’s outstanding faculty advisors.

Vice President of Student Development Keith Cornille remembers the reasons for coordinating a student awards banquet seven years ago.

“The college already had a long and successful athletic banquet, but we didn’t have anything to show those students that are outstanding tutors in each of the different schools that are outstanding, academically. We didn’t have anything about the leadership piece of it and recognizing all of those things that students also do,” Cornille said.

At the time, Cornille was the Director of Student Life. They developed the awards banquet as an event entirely coordinated and run by students.

He and his team wanted to recognize student success in a variety of capacities, not only in traditional leadership roles. He envisioned an awards banquet that would feature all facets of student leadership success.

“Sometimes a leader isn’t just the person that stands up and gives the speeches, some times the leader is the person who can sit side by side and work with somebody through a difficult situation,” Cornille said.