Photo by Warda Malik/The Gazelle
On April 28, the NYU Abu Dhabi community of students, staff and faculty gathered at the Yas Viceroy Hotel to celebrate the third annual Al Khayr Student Leadership Awards. The purpose was to celebrate the accomplishments of students who have demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities throughout the past year.
The nomination process for the awards ended on April 3. It was stressed that student leaders and student groups can be nominated by any member of the NYUAD community. After receiving the nominations, the finalists — and eventually winners — were decided by an Al Khayr committee comprising of faculty, students and Campus Life members.
NYUAD A2 Residential College Director, Robert Leary, discussed the nomination and selection process with The Gazelle.
“After the nominations are compiled, a committee comprised of students, faculty and staff members deliberates over them and determines the finalists and then winners,” said Leary.
“This takes a few weeks as the committee meets and discusses each nominee and then each finalist.”
Leary also elaborated on the fairness of the overall process that determines winners for the Al Khayr awards.
“We have made the process as fair and inclusive as possible — nominations are not votes, and the person with the most nominations does not automatically win,” he said.
He also added that the winners, from the list of finalists, are determined based on the quality of leadership contributions.
The Al Khayr awards features 12 categories, and only the winners for the President’s Service Awards were informed two weeks in advance since the ceremony was held in New York.
Note: The winners’ names are in bold.
President’s Service Awards
Dana AlHosani; Sofia Gomez-Doyle; Ritu Muralidharan
Al Khayr Award for Senior Leader
Noor Al-Mahruqi
Clara Bicalho Maia Correia
Beatrice Ionascu
Shien Yang Lee
Brenda Odhingo
Farah Shammout
Veronica Houk
Dora Palfi
Devin Ó Cuinn
Al Khayr Award for Emerging Leader
Yousra El Hassan
Alexander MacKay
Veronika Radinovska
Raghav Kumar
Hannah Melville-Rae
Aisha Al Hemeri
Ghaniba Ali
Firas Ashraf
Al Khayr Award for Outstanding Student Collaboration
A5 Hall Council
ADvocacy
WeSTEM
REACH
Girls Education Network
Al Khayr Award for Community Service
Firas Ashraf
Garreth Chan; Guillaume Sylvain
Hannah Taylor
Sofia Gomez-Doyle
Al Khayr Award for Humble Leader
Elizabeth Couri
Sofia Gomez-Doyle
Sam Ridgeway
Dana Al Hosani
Al Khayr UAE Cultural Ambassador
Dana Al Hosani
Victoria Blinova
Mariko Kuroda
Guillaume Sylvain
Hayat Abual Hassan
Al Khayr Award for Sustainability
Kate and Hannah Melville-Rae
Al Khayr Award for Sportsmanship
Fredrik Jensen
William Young
Tamara Sanchez-Ortiz
Al Khayr Award for Spirit
Veronica Houk
Yi Yi Yeap
Angela Maria Orozco
Al Khayr Award for Entrepreneurship
Xuexin Cai
Xinming Xu
Xia Lu
Al Khayr Award for Diversity, Inclusivity and Dialogue
Isabelle Galet Lalande
Djordje Modrakovic
Alexander MacKay
Al Khayr Award for Healthy Living
William Held
Carlos Alberto Escobar