College seniors Ismael Loera and Lauren Henrickson, received the Spirit of Emory Award before the Slightly Stoopid concert on Saturday.

The Spirit of Emory Award recognizes students who have made significant contributions to Emory through leadership, scholarship, campus involvement, and community service, according to Jill Camper, assistant director for the office of student leadership and service (OSLS).

Winners are chosen from the Homecoming Court through voting polls that were available online to the student body from Thursday, September 27th to Friday, September 28th.

A total of nine students from the Class of 2013 were selected to represent this years Spirit of Emory Homecoming Court.

Each year, the Division of Campus Life selects nine individuals to represent the court. Students are first nominated.

From the pool of nominees, recipients are chosen after interviews and their applications have been reviewed by various Emory University administrators, according to the OSLS website.

Loera, a Chemistry and Economics double major and president of the Latino Student Organization (LSO), was honored for his campus involvement.

In addition to serving as one of 11 orientation captains this fall, he also recently won Tour Guide of the Year.

“I’m honored to be part of the Emory homecoming court and I feel that all nine of us have contributed positively to Emory,” Leora said. “I initially accepted the nomination into the court because since this is my senior year, I want to experience everything that there is at Emory before I graduate.”

Loera considers his greatest accomplishment to be his work with LSO. Along with the rest of his executive board, he has made an effort to make the LSO a more well-known organization among the relatively small Latino population at Emory, he stated.

The second winner, Lauren Henrickson, is a Linguistics and Religion major who is heavily involved with music expression as a member of Dooley Noted A Capella group and the Emory Concert Choir. An alumna of the Tibetan Mind-Body Sciences program, she also is an avid supporter of the Emory-Tibet partnership.

Fellow court member Steven Cheng, a Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology major and Alpha Tau Omega secretary, stated that the experience made him very appreciative.

“I think that, especially after having looked around me today while on our [Homecoming] trucks, I can safely say that I really do appreciate Emory, my peers, and everything I’ve learned since I stepped foot on campus. I know it sounds corny, but it’s always nice to know that someone thinks you can do more than you think you can do,” Cheng said.

 – By Minah So 

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