Student Affairs announced Monday that 23 seniors are nominated for the Tommie Award, an honor given annually to a senior who best represents St. Thomas through scholarship, leadership and campus involvement.

Vern Klobassa, director of student engagement, said the 23 nominees are a good cross section of the student body.

“The nominees are a great representation of the quality students that we have at St. Thomas,” Klobassa said. “It’s a lot of fun to read through all of their materials … to read all of these great things about the impact that they’ve had on our community here at St. Thomas and all of their accomplishments.”

The Tommie Award has been a St. Thomas tradition since 1931, with winners dating back to its start when it was formerly known as the “Mr. Tommy Award” and only given to men.

In the new process for nomination introduced this year, seniors were nominated by other students, faculty, or staff, and then completed the submission process by turning in resume and testimonials themselves.

To be considered for the award, students are required to maintain at least a 2.75 cumulative GPA and be in good academic and non-academic standing.

Last year, Matt Sullivan received the Tommie Award from a pool of the 16 nominees.

Students, faculty and staff will vote for three Tommie Award finalists Dec. 10-12. Student Affairs will conduct the voting process online and plans to email a link to vote.

Feb 11-13, the online voting between the three Tommie Award finalists will determine the winner.

This year’s finalists are:

Ahmed Aldhafeeri

Katherine Anderson

Samantha Barriga

Kristyn Brisnehan

Nicholas Chang

Eyo Ekpo

Thomas Hannon

Sarah Hendricks

Rae Horton

Curtis James

Collin Kearney

Geena Maharaj

Adam Martin

Shalaw Mohammed

Michael Mortenson

Nneka Njoku

Michael Orth

Terese Quarberg

Robert Ranallo

Jessica Root

Eric Weber

G Lee Xiong

John Young

TommieMedia will profile each Tommie Award nominee later this week.

Heidi Enninga can be reached at enni5264@stthomas.edu.