Last week, the University of Louisiana of Lafayette’s Advance Student Research Experience Program held its second annual Leaf Awards ceremony.
Advance created the award not only to acknowledge the contributions students make to the university, but to also give thanks and reward students for their diligence, ingenuity and creativity.
The Advance Student Research program was established right when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
So unfortunately, Advance was not able to host any in-person events for the two years of the pandemic.
But UL Lafayette had always envisioned awarding and presenting a student research award since the program’s founding.
“One of the things that is in [the Advance program’s] plan, that they wanted… was to be able to reward students more, like you did this, and we want to make a big deal out of it.”, said Dr. Sherry Krayesky-Self, director of Advance.
After Covid, when things got rolling once again, the program rushed to establish the awards.
The first ceremony was held last year, at the Student Alumni Center, where Dr. Jaime Hebert, the Provost of UL Lafayette, said this to last year’s Leaf Award winners:
“We as faculty get into this profession first off because of our passion for our discipline, that’s what drives us. But, very quickly, we begin to learn that sharing our own creations, sharing the creations of others, disseminating information, is really the biggest driver in that passion. We get to know students and our hope is that we get to kindle that same kind of passion in one or two students now and again. And you students, this group, you’re what we live for.”
This year’s ceremony was held at Vermilionville, a 23-acre historically accurate village and museum which depicts the cultures of Creole, Acadian and Native American peoples. Comprised of beautiful historical houses, the village served as a beautiful and charming venue for the ceremony.
The awards are divided into fifteen categories, including: education, business, health, performing arts, international impact and many others.
But when projects are interdisciplinary or display excellence across award categories, some students are nominated for the Provost Award.
Of the more than 30 award recipients, four received a Provost Award. Carson Savoie won a Provost Award for her project “Map to Black Studies”. Jessica Fiser received the Provost award for her study: “Loss of FGFR1 Signaling in the Central Nervous System Results in Impaired Maternal Behavior Phenotypes.” Karius Joseph was nominated for his study on 3D printed carbon electrodes for lithium-ion batteries. And Emily DeGruise, won hers for her two psychological studies, one on corporal punishment, the other on self-diagnosis.
The naming of the Leaf Awards was very intentional with the inspiration for the name coming from the majestic live oak trees that can be found across Louisiana and on UL Lafayette’s campus.
“So when you think about the leaves on that tree, there’s lots of them, hundreds of them, thousands of them, and they support the tree and the tree supports them. And so, the students are very much like those leaves, the students support the University, the strength that it has, the grace that it has, and the University supports the students,” Krayesky-Self said.
Students’ involvement and support of that system is vital, because a good university is a place of knowledge, where you go to absorb and learn information that will serve your future. But a great university is one that produces knowledge, and it’s imperative for not only the staff to be part of that endeavor, but the students as well.