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The inaugural Al Khayr awards gala took place on Thursday, April 24 at the Beach Rotana Hotel. The awards, an initiative of the Office of Campus Life, were created in 2014 to recognize student leadership among the NYU Abu Dhabi community.

Freshman Yi Yi Yeap, one of two student representatives on the organizing committee, spoke about the value of the awards. She stressed that the awards seek to recognize leadership, rather than leaders.

“We wanted to emphasize that it wasn’t just for people in Student Government or people that are presidents or chairs of [Student Interest Groups] but for people that aren’t in those positions but do a lot of work as well,” said Yeap.

From over 110 nominations, the committee selected 44 finalists and three student groups to invite to the gala. Senior Alejandra Pinto was nominated for her work with Sama Circle, a biweekly discussion group that focuses on a variety of themes that draw on students’ personal experiences and issues.

“I think that our students are very capable in extra-curricular activities and this is the first time that they have created an award to recognize that leadership,” she said, speaking shortly before the winners were announced.

Robert Leary, residence director at the Office of Residential Education, came up with the initial concept and spearheaded the organizing committee. Leary felt the existing Of-The-Year Awards presented by Hall Council did not capture the full range of student leadership.

Creating the awards required, however, a new framework unique to NYUAD. The Al Khayr awards, which take their name from the Arabic word meaning the ultimate good, had 12 categories. These included UAE Cultural Ambassador for leadership in the promotion of cultural understanding in the UAE and The Unsung Hero Award, recognizing extensive, albeit unrecognized, work.

Yeap said the awards were created to recognize leadership at NYUAD across all departments of Campus Life.

“We had to come up with every detail from the nomination criteria … the nomination categories to the selection process,” said Yeap. “The 12 categories could easily change next year and in the years to come.”

Winners:

Allison Everett

Corey Meyer

Nafisatou Mounkaila

Natalie McCauley

Clara Correia

Winner:

Alistair Blacklock

Nominees:

Alejandra Pinto

Sarah Kowash

Winner:

Mohamed Belarbi

Nominees:

Rafael Scharan

Souhail Wardi

Winner:

Rend Beiruti

Nominees:

Benjamin Jance

Connie Trinh

Winner:

Joseph Juma

Nominees:

Devin Quinn

Usama Hussain

Winner:

Ecoherence (All of the nominees)

Nominees:

Brittany Trilford

Jacob Hartwig

Louis Plottel

Winner:

Maitha Al Mansoori

Nominees:

Gabriel Torres

Moe Alblooshi

Winner:

Dhia Fani

Nominees:

Amel Yagoub

Caroline Manela

Corey Meyer

Mariko Kuroda

Winners:

James Carrington Gardner

Emina Osmandžiković

Guillaume Sylvain

Nominees:

Dhia Fani

Issa Nasr

Mitali Banerji

Moe Alblooshi

Quan Vuong

Sofia Gomez-Doyle

Xuexin Cai

Winner:

Kimi Rodriguez

Nominees:

Garreth Chan

Zach Stanley

Winner:

Woman’s Leadership Network

Nominees:

9Fest Organizers

Communications Committee

Winner:

Tom Taylor

Nominees:

Louis Plottel

Samia Ahmed

Winners:

Leah Reynolds

Mohammed Omar

Darina Gancheva

Nominees:

Alex Wang

Alistair Blacklock

Caroline Manela

Dasha Karaulova

Eric Johnson

Florencia Schlamp

Stephen Underwood