LEADERSHIP AWARD Victoria Oluwasoorefunmi Olayiwola

About the MultiCultuRAl AWARD

puRpoSe

The Multicultural Leadership Award recognizes one minority students who has achieved academic success and demonstrated effective leadership in promoting cultural awareness to the campus and community.

CRiteRiA

• Currently enrolled Multicultural student with a GPA of 3.0 or higher and good disciplinary standing

• Evidence of leadership in community and/or campus cultural awareness events

• One to three references

Hometown: Ibadan, Nigeria

Major: Pre-Nursing

Campus Involvement:

African and Carribean Student Union

(Programming Chair, Fall 2022 ‐ Present) • International Student Organization (Member, Spring 2022 ‐ Present) • The Jambar (Journalist/ Reporter, Spring 2022 ‐ Spring 2022) • YSU

Maag Library (Student Assistant, Summer 2022

‐ Present)

• Emerging Leader Program (Fall 2022

‐ Present)

• Penguin Pantry Volunteer (Spring 2022 ‐ Present) • Swipe Out Hunger Week Simulation Volunteer/ Participator (Fall 2022 ‐

Fall 2022)

• Penguin Night Student Volunteer (Fall 2022)

• Homecoming Week Volunteer (Fall 2022)

In Victoria’s Words:

SeleCtion

A recipient is chosen by the Student Awards Committee based upon the completed application and input from references.

“Cultural awareness occurs in various stages of our day‐to‐day life and activities we involve ourselves in. Being an African student specifically from Nigeria, I would say I have an extent of how I should be able to enlighten people around me about certain things to magnify their ideology about things from my culture and its several ways of life. From joining organizations and holding positions to the tiniest conversation that could erupt between me and someone at Chick‐fil‐A, I try my best in making my awareness known culturally. This awareness ranges in various forms but the catchy one in which has made me have a lot of conversations with people is my accent. Just from the way I speak, it makes people curious, and I tend to solve their inquisitiveness. These opportunities are where I educate people about where I am from and answer whatever questions they may ask of me. It is always fun and enlightening having these conversations and it has shown me why we all need to be involved in things like leadership and activities to promote diversity and enlightenment.

"In addition to this, being optimistic about things has gone a long way for me as a leader and it has made people around me respect me more and not give up on things easily because challenges occur and the way we react to it says a lot about us. I want people around me to learn these ways because it also helps in our daily lives even without holding a leadership role.”

Nominator’s Thoughts:

“Ever since I have known Victoria, some of her biggest strengths are her positivity, innate curiosity, passion, and kindness. She exudes warmth, and every encounter with her makes you feel better than before that interaction. She is an extremely hard worker and does her due diligence to find opportunities for personal development and growth. Victoria never shies away from a challenge, and this attitude will take her to higher places in life.

As a nursing major, Victoria is under a lot of academic pressure and must take complex chemistry and biology classes. Despite this workload, she finds the time to stay active on campus and volunteers a significant amount of time serving as the Programming Chair for the African and Caribbean Student Union (ACSU).”

– Oluwatumininu Adeeko, Student, African & Caribbean Student Union