Virginia Tech students David Moran and Kelly Williams receive 2004 A. Alan Baird Memorial Award
The Office of Student Programs at Virginia Tech awarded the 12th annual A. Alan Baird award to two outstanding student leaders, David Moran, of Richmond, Va., and Kelly Williams, of Prospect, Va., during the University Student Leadership Awards Ceremony held April 1.
In the spirit of Alan Baird, this award is for the most outstanding contribution to the residence hall program during or culminating in the current academic year. Students are nominated by their peers as well as by faculty and staff. The A. Alan Baird Award is made possible through the generosity of the family and friends of Alan Baird, Class of 1988, who passed away in March 1992. Alan served as president of the Residence Hall Federation (RHF) during 1987-88 when he also served as president of the Virginia Association of College and University Residence Halls.
The first recipient, David Moran, a senior majoring in communications in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, began his residence hall experience as a freshman in the Residential Leadership Community (RLC). His commitment to that program can be seen by his having served for the past two years as a teaching assistant in the RLC's Bridge program. He also is completing his first year as a resident advisor in O'Shaughnessy Hall and next year will serve as resident advisor coordinator in that building.
A former program chair for the Residence Hall Federation, Moran also serves as president for the National Residence Hall Honorary, where he has improved the visibility of NRHH through recognition and service and by working with staff to have NRHH members serve as ambassadors during the various Admissions Open House events.
Beyond the residence halls, Moran served as an orientation leader last summer and will return as team leader of orientation in 2004. In addition, he also produces and co-hosts Tech Talk on WUVT and serves as a regular columnist for the Collegiate Times.
"We see in Dave a very dedicated student who shows enormous dedication and high performance in the programs and activities in which he involves himself," said Dr. Edward Spencer, assistant vice president for the division of student affairs. "He is committed to helping and recognizing others and sharing much of himself."
The second recipient, Kelly Williams, a junior majoring in business management in the Pamplin College of Business, has spent innumerable hours in service to resident students. She served as president of the Lee Hall Council during her freshman year and went on to serve as vice president of the Residence Hall Federation during her sophomore year. During her second semester in that office, the president's position was vacated prematurely, and Williams assumed the presidency for the remainder of that year. She handled those duties so well that her peers chose her as RHF's Officer of the Year and elected her to a full term as RHF president, which she is completing.
Through her involvement with RHF, Williams has represented the residents' views, organized training conferences, coordinated trips to state, regional, and national conferences, and overseen RHF's large-scale, campuswide programs and fundraising efforts.
Her nominator, Josh King, assistant coordinator for Hillcrest Community and RHF stated, "Because of her visibility on campus, Kelly is very much the personification of RHF. Fortunately for us, she presents an extremely positive image of herself and the organization [RHF]. In fact, I have been most impressed with her persistent adherence to goals and purpose. She never considers a program or fundraising opportunity without first deciding whether or not it will benefit the on-campus population."
Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become the largest university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top 30 research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.
