Awards

One of the highlights of the International Students For Liberty Conference is the Annual Awards Presentation.  In 2009, Students For Liberty began to recognize outstanding students and student groups that have distinguished themselves in the battle for liberty on campus.  Award recipients are chosen based on their hard work, organizational skills, value creation, innovation, and entrepreneurism.

2010 Students For Liberty Awards

*Nomination for the 2010 Students For Liberty awards is closed.

This year Students For Liberty will be presenting awards for the Event of the Year, Student of the Year, and Student Group of the Year.

Who can enter?  Any student, student group, or student event dedicated to liberty may be nominated.  Groups do not have to be affiliated with SFL to be nominated.  Students do not need to be members of groups affiliated with SFL.  Student events do not need to be hosted by affiliated student groups.  However, student group affiliation will be taken into consideration as one factor indicating connectedness with the pro-liberty movement.

The nomination deadline is December 31st, 2009.  The finalists will be announced in mid-January with the awards presented at the International Conference on February 12th.  The winners will be voted on by the SFL Executive Board.  The deadline for submission is December 31st, 2009.  If you have any questions please email Program Manager Clark Ruper at cruper@studentsforliberty.org.

2009 Students For Liberty Awards

2009 Student Group of the Year: University of Michigan College Libertarians
The Group of the Year award goes to a group that has shown an outstanding commitment to promoting the ideas of liberty and illustrated successes in developing as an organization. The best organization is not the one with the most members or the one that has held the most events, although this group has both. It is about having a strong membership of dedicated students and events that make an impact on the campus at large. The best groups seek to broaden their reach both on campus and beyond to other organizations. Ultimately, this award goes to the organization that SFL considers to be a model, an example of what a group should be that others can look toward for inspiration.  In 2009, the University of Michigan College Libertarians had one of the largest and most impressive membership bases. Their students have interned at state and national think tanks, attended prestigious seminars, and even run for Mayor of Ann Arbor on a pro-liberty platform. Their events were some of the most unique and well attended, ranging from bringing Jon Stossel to speak to holding a Gun Giveaway in support of the Second Amendment. Finally, they were instrumental in holding what was perhaps the most successful 2008 SFL Regional Conference, the Midwest Students For Freedom Conference.

2009 Student of the Year: Aaron Moyer, Drexel University
This award goes to a student that has shown true passion for the cause of liberty and represents the drive that students possess to change the world. While there are many students doing incredible things, we want to recognize one student that has made a difference on campus and whom we believe will continue to make a difference for liberty in the future.  On campus, he founded and served as the first president of the Drexel Student Liberty Front. He then helped organize the Philadelphia Forum for Freedom, a coalition of pro-liberty student groups in the Philadelphia region, which has served as a model for others to follow, and stepped down from his position in the Student Liberty Front to lead the PFF. A testament to his sucess as a leader is how greatly the Drexel group has flourished thanks to his successful transfer of leadership. After all of this, he began planning his own nonprofit organization, the Freeman’s Union, to provide grassroots education on liberty. We are proud to award the 2009 SFL Student of the Year award to Aaron Moyer from Drexel University.

2009 Event of the Year: Ivy League Alliance for Liberty Constitutional Convention
Running an event takes tremendous amounts of work with little recognition. Planning takes an incredible amount of time, and something inevitably goes wrong. Holding a highly successful event is an accomplishment of which every organizer should be proud. The Ivy League Alliance for Liberty first began as a discussion during the 2008 Philadelphia Students For Liberty Conference. Several participants recognized a need to link their organizations to promote collaboration and interaction. Rather than letting this become idle chatter, several students decided to make the alliance a reality. On January 31st, 2009, the Ivy League Alliance for Liberty Constitutional Convention was held at Columbia University. The convention’s participating organizations and organizers deserve tremendous credit for putting together this event to transform the political climates not only on their campuses, but in academia and society as a whole.