Eyo Ekpo, Rae Horton and Shalaw Mohammed are the finalists for the 2013 Tommie Award.

The finalists were selected in an online voting process Monday through Wednesday from a pool of 23 nominees.

Vern Klobassa, director of student engagement, congratulated each of the nominees.

“All 23 nominees have made significant contributions to the St. Thomas community,” Klobassa said, “and are an outstanding representation of the extraordinary students who attend the university.”

All three seniors represent minority groups on campus and Ekpo said that fact says St. Thomas is more diverse than stereotypes suggest.

“It definitely was a surprise for all three students to be minority students,” Ekpo said. “I think it speaks boldly to St. Thomas as a whole and the vision that Father (Dennis) Dease especially has been trying to incorporate in the school, an increased number of minorities.”

Mohammed, an international student from Iraq, said the diversity among the nominees is significant.

“When I saw the finalists, I really felt great that it’s not a typical group of finalists, Mohammed said. “We have people of color, we have people of different backgrounds and people of different cultures.”

Horton said the she was impressed in the variety of backgrounds represented, even in the 23 nominees.

“I was even surprised at the selection of nominees and the variety of backgrounds in the 23,” Horton said, “and then to see the top three still represent that was phenomenal to me.”

Ekpo said he woke up to his phone vibrating with an email from Klobassa.

“He’s like, ‘Congratulations, you’re a finalist!” I was still half awake, still dreaming. I really didn’t know how to feel because it was so early in the morning,” Ekpo said. “Once I re-read the email, I was ecstatic.”

Ekpo credits his friends at St. Thomas for participating in the voting process.

“I’m really fortunate that what they see in me is what they see in St. Thomas,” Ekpo said.

Mohammed said he also found out he was a finalist right away when he woke up.

“It was a really great feeling; a sense of accomplishment. A sense of happiness overcame me just because this is what I’ve been striving for the past four years,” Mohammed said.

Horton said she wasn’t expecting the announcement to come so soon after voting.

“I checked my email … and I saw the congratulations in the first sentence,” Horton said. “It was exciting, but I wasn’t going to be bummed if I wasn’t a finalist. It was a good feeling … kind of surreal though.”

Another online voting process, Feb. 11-13, will determine the 2013 Tommie Award winner.

“I see anything that happens as just icing on the cake,” Ekpo said.

Mohammed said he will be pleased either way when the winner is announced.

“I feel like … we’re trying to get the same message across, of we are the minority and we represent,” Mohammed said. “That’s a great message.”

Horton said she hopes to end the streak of male winners.

“It hasn’t been a female for 12 years and so that’s kind of my motivation in achieving this is to break that streak,” Horton said.

Since 1931, the Tommie Award has been given to a senior who best represents St. Thomas in scholarship, leadership and campus involvement.

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