St. Thomas Student Affairs released the names on Nov. 18 of 23 seniors who have been nominated for the 2014 Tommie Award.

The annual award is given to a graduating student who represents St. Thomas Aquinas’ ideals through scholarship, leadership and campus involvement.

This is the second year nominees have been responsible for submitting most of the application material. Vern Klobassa, director of Student Affairs, said this process “puts the agency in the hands of the (nominated) students.”

“We made it easier for nominators to submit a nomination without the burden of coordinating the submission of materials and for nominees to track progress on submitting their own materials,” Klobassa said.

The Tommie Award tradition began in 1931 as the “Mr. Tommy Award,” but according to the St. Thomas Newsroom, the honor was renamed the gender-neutral “Tommie Award” in 1981 when Rachel Wobschall was the first female winner. Last year, Eyo Ekpo received the award.

The same number of students were in contention for last year’s award as for this year’s honor. This year, 14 women and nine men are nominated. Last year there were 13 male nominees and 10 female.

Undergraduate students, faculty and staff will vote Dec. 9-11 to narrow the list to three preliminary finalists through a survey sent out via email.

The final vote will occur in February.

Editor’s note: Each nominee was asked the same questions to ensure fairness. Click on the name to view a full profile of the candidate.

This year’s nominees are:

Max Bischmann
Eden Checkol
Heather Clayton
Danielle Francen
Alexander Goering
Lindsay Goodwin
Jenna Johnson
Alex Johnson
Paige Johnson
Emily Kindelspire
Benjamin Kula
Dillon Lang
Stephanie McCartan
Brandon Miranda
Sean Ness
Samuel O’Donnell
Bailey Otis
Ranitha Rajaratnam
Hayley Trace
Anne Traynor
Gina Vo
Erin Windschitl
Joseph Wistrcill

Alexander Goering and Eden Checkol, both TommieMedia staff members, did not contribute to this report.

Anastasia Straley can be reached at stra0669@stthomas.edu.