Student Awards + Highlights

Strength & Resillience Award

Resilience is an inner strength that enables us to move forward in spite of adversity, obstacles and challenges. Sometimes those challenges can be personal, individual, or structural.Recipients of this award have had to evolve to become stronger, effective, and triumphant in the face of adversity. This award celebrates the strength and resilience demonstrated by CDI-affiliated students and organizations during challenging times.

Recent winners: 

• 2025 – Ajmaani Whitter

• 2024 – The Brotherhood

• 2023 – Feminista!

• 2022 – DePauw China Connection 

• 2021 – International Student Ambassadors 

Innovative Program of the Year Award

Innovative Program of the Year Award recognizes programming that is "outside the box" in spirit and deed. Creativity in programming provides a model for other organizations to be inventive, gives our community interesting activities & events, and allows our students to stretch their imaginations.Recipients of this award have demonstrated a creativity of vision and originality of execution. They have presented an outstanding program in an avant-garde manner, bringing new ideas and experiences to DePauw.

Recent winners:

• 2025 – Bollywood Night by Dharma

• 2024 – International Student Bazaar by Depauw International Student Association (DISA)

• 2023 – “SPARK!” by Kyungmin Lee

• 2022 – “Dripping in Jewels Winter Ball” by House of Opulence

• 2021 – “Keke Call Out” by Queer Students of Color (QSoC)

Outstanding Community Engagement Award

Outstanding Community Engagement Award was created as a way to recognize students who are involved in building, maintaining, and cultivating our DePauw Community with exceptional engagement & service. Recipients of this award will have initiated courses of action that are intentionally intersectional. They are also selected based on their work to enhance the community, particularly in the areas of education, health & wellness, community building, services, arts & culture, and sustainability.

Recent winners:

• 2025 – Bailey Rent

• 2024 – Daniel Rhodes

• 2023 – Jacquelene Matos & Gervhona Lemon

• 2022 – Isaiah Spears

• 2021 – Shafrarisi Bonner

Organization of the Year Award

This award honors an outstanding organization whose accomplishments exemplify the values and mission of The Justin and Darrianne Christian Center for Diversity & Inclusion for the past academic year. Recipients of this award are selected on the following criteria: consistency in programming, exemplary community building, providing positive social outlets, building connections between other organizations, and constructively promoting an exemplary student experience.

Recent winners:

• 2025 – Association of African American Students (AAAS)

• 2024 – DePauw International Student Association (DISA)

• 2023 – Vietnamese Student Association (VSA)

• 2022 – Association of African American Students (AAAS)

• 2021 – Association of African American Students (AAAS)

Sylva Selleris Award

In 1856, the faculty and President Daniel Curry passed a resolution that curtailed and regulated the activities of the student societies at that time. President Curry claimed that the activities of the student societies were "occasions of serious disorder". The students petitioned the administration to reconsider their actions, but they refused.

On October 25, 1856, about one hundred students gathered in what was known as Seller's Woods, or as the students called it, "Sylva Selleris," which is now McKeen field. Here they talked matters over, and decided they would all stick together. President Curry had, in the meantime, declared the college to be in a state of rebellion. On Tuesday, October 28, he presented to the "rebels" a pledge and they were given twenty-four hours to deliberate. At the end of that time, if they decided to accept it, they could remain in school, if not, they were to be suspended.

The final result? The students rejected the pledge which led to the suspension of a number of underclassmen and the ENTIRE senior class. In later years nearly all of the senior class were re-enrolled and recognized as alumni of the University.

Recipients of this award are selected in the spirit of those "rebels" who challenged the university and thus made it a better place for subsequent generations of students. They are selected in the spirit of The Senior Class of 1857 who met in the Sylva Selleris Woods and decided to gather, organize and fight for their beliefs. They are selected in the spirit of those students who knew that a flourishing university must always aspire to achieve institutional equity.

Recent winners:

• 2025 – Maya La Croix

• 2024 – Gervhona Lemon

• 2023 – Nathaniel Swanson

• 2022 – D’Angelo McDade

• 2021 – Jazmine Kerr

Inclusive Excellence 2025