W&L Holds 2025 Leadership Excellence Awards The annual banquet recognizes the many individual and group accomplishments of W&L students within the past year. 

By Kelsey Goodwin
April 17, 2025

“I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity to witness the exceptional leadership and accomplishments of our student leaders.”

~ Vice President for Student Affairs Alex Miller

Washington and Lee University held its 2025 Leadership Excellence Awards ceremony on March 25 to recognize individuals and organizations that have significantly impacted the campus within the last year.

This marks the 11th year for the event, facilitated by Leah Beard, assistant dean of leadership at W&L. A student committee helps organize the event alongside Beard, and a selection committee chooses a winner for each of the 31 awards from among the nominees. This year’s Leadership Excellence Awards Committee included Ben Bankston ’25 (chair), Lillian Peskova ’26, Sophia Taylor ’26, Emily Bradley ’26, Abby Leo ’26, Lily Ha ’28, Thomas O’Connor ’27 and Kelcie Comisac ’27.

Bankston, an economic major and data science minor from Lynchburg, Virginia, served as emcee and chaired the event’s planning committee.

“I’ve been an emcee at the event since my freshman year,” Bankston said. “Putting the pieces together for LEA this year and then getting to share that with everyone in the audience directly was really special.”

The committee employed fun and creative strategies to generate nominations this year, including incorporating a chocolate fountain into their commons tabling and holding late-night tabling sessions in the library. Bankston said his favorite aspect of the event is seeing campus leaders recognized for their efforts.

“We know that students, staff, and faculty work hard all year to make W&L a great place to learn and live,” Bankston said. “Each of these people and groups deserves an opportunity to be recognized for their hard work, and the Leadership Excellence Awards provide that.”

This year’s event featured the first group of recipients of the recently established 1749 Senior Medallion Award, established in 2024 to recognize the top 3%, or approximately 17 students, of the graduating class who demonstrated outstanding leadership and service during their years at W&L. The award, presented to students by Vice President for Student Affairs Alex Miller, recognizes graduating seniors who embody the W&L mission statement and values, including honor, integrity, civility and inclusiveness, and who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, commitment and passion to the broader W&L community through involvement in various organizations and initiatives.

Beard said this year’s event reflected the wide variety of ways W&L students can leave a lasting impact on campus.

“So often, a leader is thought of as a singular person who is the face of an organization, club or project,” Beard said. “This year helped to display that leadership goes beyond this. The 2024-25 Leadership Excellence Award winners and finalists were leaders who impacted various initiatives both on and off our campus and in many ways, whether behind the scenes, building important relationships or propelling a project forward. All winners and finalists demonstrated outstanding leadership through dedication and hard work for organizations and many aspects of student life such as First-Year Orientation Committee, fraternity and sorority life, residence life, Traveller, academic success and so much more.”

“I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity to witness the exceptional leadership and accomplishments of our student leaders,” Miller said. “Whether it was leading a student organization, a fraternity or sorority, serving on our residence life staff or the Executive Committee, it is truly inspiring to see the hard work, passion and dedication that each of our students has put into making a positive impact on our campus community.”

Kelcie Comisac ’27, an economics major with minors in data science and art history from Jacksonville, Alabama, said the event has become a hallmark of W&L’s campus life.

“This event is an essential part of W&L’s campus culture because it provides an opportunity to recognize individuals and groups for their efforts, which can often go unnoticed or unthanked,” said Comisac. “While nominees aren’t seeking any recognition, it’s still important to acknowledge their contributions to our community and show appreciation for their hard work. Student leaders have continuously shared how much they appreciate the event as a way to celebrate their peers. They value how important and motivating it is for everyone’s hard work to be honored.”

Learn more about individual and group awards at the Leadership Excellence Awards and explore W&L’s leadership development programming.

2025 Leadership Excellence Awards Recipients

NSL McLoughlin Award for Volunteerism

Michael Wang ’25

Leader for a Sustainable Future Award

Bella Ferrate ’26

Asa Tuke ’25

Excellence in Artistic Event Management

Gabe Hogan ’26

Veronika Kolosova ’25

W&L Community Service Excellence Award

Tau Zeta Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Outstanding Peer Counselors

Mariam Drammeh ’25

Lily Greenwald ’25

Outstanding RA/CA and Outstanding Programmer

Kaden Buss ’27 (RA)

Sophia Taylor ’26 (CA)

Kaia Beddows ’27 (programmer)

Emma Marvelli ’27 (programmer)

Outstanding Peer Tutor

Adhip Adhikari ’27

Aidan Kitchen ’25

Harte Center Excellence in Program Leadership Award

Veronika Kolosova ’25

Jessie Zhang ’26

Excellence in Writing Center Leadership Award

Drew Thompson ’25

Emerging Leader of the Year

Malachi Zarahn ’28

Christopher Noland Student Activities Leadership Award

Daniel Reiter ’26

Panhellenic, IFC and NPHC Members of the Year Award

Hollins Pierpoint ’25 (Penhellenic)

Evan Cecchini ’25 (IFC)

Laura Murambadoro ’26 (NPHC)

Best Event of the Year

NPHC Step Show Competition

 Outstanding Philanthropic Effort

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)

Best Student Organization (Americus White Award)

Remote Area Medical (RAM)

The Frank J. Gilliam Award

Ben Bankston ’25

Holbrook Barber Scholarship Award

Katalyn Denby ’26

Hamza Zia ’26

The Edward Lee Pinney Prize

Trip Wright ’25

The Decade Award

Anshika Patel ’26

Advisor of the Year

Heidi Bustos

Outstanding First-Year Advisor Award

Lloyd Tanlu

John W. Elrod Unsung General Award

Danny Jakubowski-Lewis ’27

Community Catalyst Award

Elena Lee ’25

Anece F. McCloud Excellence in Belonging Award

Chace Thompson ’27

Larry Stuart Memorial Award

Noah Shelton ’25

The Brackett Priddy Prize

Devin Bateman ’25

The Madison Montgomery Shinaberry ’16 Outstanding Student Leader Award

Sophia Taylor ’26

Hamza Zia ’26

The Alexander Thomas Boehling ’10 Memorial Award

Ben Bankston ’25

Veronika Kolosova ’25

1749 Senior Medallion Award

Ben Bankston ’25

Erin Brennan ’25

Uno Christopher ’25

Anna Connolly ’25

Meagan Donovan ’25

Mariam Drammeh ’25

Lilly Jordan ’25

Elena Lee ’25

Madison Lilly ’25

Sophie McCauley ’25

Mohammed Mourtaja ’25

Lizzy Nguyen ’25

Marcus Payne ’25

Kiera Stankewich ’25

Harris Stripling ’25

Liv Ullmann ’25

Michael Wang ’25

Quinlin Zunk ’25