GCSU held its annual Bobcat Awards and Recognition Program ceremony on Tuesday, April 8, at 6 p.m. in the Magnolia Ballroom of the Student Activities Center. This event celebrates student leaders and organizations across campus. The three categories of awards are for organizations, individuals and activities.
All recipients of Bobcat Awards are considered through nominations. GCSU office of student engagement collaborates with student life, sends out forms for each Bobcat nominee, then a committee reviews all applicants and chooses a winner based off of the nominations.
In order to be nominated, a student organization is required to be recognized by the Student Government Association and be in good standing with the university.
Depending on the type of award received, students would win a certificate, a scholarship cash prize or a bobcat statuette. Students who received the bobcat statuettes were invited to a formal dinner with President Cathy Cox in the Governor’s Mansion to celebrate their student leadership success.
Kara Kahaian, a senior criminal justice major and President of the GCSU esports team, received the Club Sports Member of the Year Award. Kahain said she was surprised to receive this award but very grateful overall.
Collectively, Kahaian and Adam Lively, a junior management information systems major, received the Student Organization of the Year Award, representing the esports team as a whole. This award recognizes a student organization that contributes to the GCSU community in a variety of ways.
Lively said that the changes esports has made within this semester have been a huge contributor to their success as an intramural team. Their club was recently able to move into a new room and purchase new equipment.
“We’ve grown our club a lot over these past couple of months,” Lively said. “We did a lot of talk with student staff, and we’re doing a lot of work with the middle school. So we’ve done a lot of programs just in the past couple of months to build and expand.”
According to Kahaian, the esports team used to be much smaller, and promotion and recognition has helped them flourish as an intramural club.
“We used to have a single competing team, and now we have probably five year-rounds,” Kahaian said. “We’re always traveling, and we’re just making good friends in our community, so we’ve definitely grown in recognition too.”
The Registered Student Organization Advisor of the Year award was given to Sarah Goodelman, a GCSU graduate and Student Engagement Program Coordinator. Goodelman also happened to be one of the announcers at the Bobcat awards ceremony.
The RSO Advisor award acknowledges an advisor who performed outstandingly in advising a student organization. Goodelman oversees two clubs on campus, the Campus Activities Board and GC Miracle.
“I’m not a person who works for validation or anything like that,” Goodelman said. “I’m just a girl doing my job. But to know that I’m making an impact on these students’ lives is something very rewarding to know.”
During her time as a student at GCSU, Goodelman was involved in GC Miracle and asked specifically to work as the advisor for the club to continue showing her support for its mission in funding the Beverly Knight Olsen Children’s Hospital.
“My key role now, even though I’m not a student anymore, is to be there and do tasks for them that they don’t need to be spending their time on,” Goodelman said. “It’s just a very big impact I know I’m making, not just on the organization, but the kids at the hospital as well.”
Goodelman, Lively, Kahaian and the rest of the reward recipients were all thrilled to be recognized at the Bobcat Awards and Recognitions Program Ceremony. The ceremony celebrated and honored student programs and student leaders for all of their contributions to the GCSU community through service, fundraising, promotion and leadership development.