Thank you all so much for the great turnout for Wednesday’s GSA week event, the GSA Night at the Museum Social and Awards Ceremony! I had a lot of fun, and I hope everyone else had a wonderful time as well enjoying the included food, drinks, amazing art, and awards. I wanted to announce this year’s winners for our inaugural awards:

GSA Program Representative of the Year Award: Joelle Dorskind from the CMM program for her dedication to the GSA and her program
GSA Student Group Leader of the Year Award: Alex Mims Pike for her work in LIFE (Leadership Initiative for the Environment)
GSA Community Service of the Year Award: Daniel Pham for his work in Project Bridge and Brain Fest
GSA Executive Board’s Choice for Citizen of the Year Award: Adler Archer for his pioneering work in developing a Diversity Council at the School of Medicine

I think I speak for the rest of the GSA executive board, and the school in general, when I say that we all sincerely appreciate what you all do for the GSA, the school, and our communities. We appreciate your hard work and dedication, and wish you all the best for the future. Personally, I cannot think of a more deserving set of individuals to be recognized. Congratulations, again! I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank the GSA executive board for all their hard work in planning this weeks’ events, as well as my amazing husband (and fellow PhD student) John Bettridge, as well as our wonderful administrator Eric Lee, for their large parts in planning this awards ceremony. A shout-out to the members of the Xiao lab- Xiaoli Weng, Max White, Joshua McCausland, and Xinxing Yang, for helping me with much of the physical labor for the event planning.

-Kelsey