In April of 2016 I had the honor of organizing the 66th Annual Thunderbird Awards Ceremony for Southern Utah University. This project took three months of planning, scheduling, and organizing to create one magical evening for the faculty, staff, and students of SUU and the community of Cedar City.
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I chose to organize this event in April of 2015 after being elected the Vice President of Activities. With that position, I had the opportunity to lead a team of event directors throughout the 2015-16 Academic year. In the position, it was my duty to assign each director various events to plan and organize under my leadership. Together we planned and organized a total of 56 events for the campus of Southern Utah University. However, the Thunderbird Awards is an event that took the whole Student Activities Board to complete. While assigning events, I chose not to assign the Thunderbird Awards to a director, I chose to lead the project myself with the delegation of smaller projects to my directors. I am studying Strategic Communication in hopes to become a professional event manager. I felt that this project would be a great experience for myself, as a leader and event manager, to better myself in my field and run a large scale event for the whole community.
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Nominations:
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Starting in January I delegated each specific section of the Thunderbird Awards to my directors. The first
step of the Thunderbird Awards is obtaining nominees for each of the 16 awards. I appointed a separate
committee, not including any of my student directors, to organize nominees and the judging process. Amy
and Kathy worked with the SUU marketing office to put the nomination link on the mySUUportal. Nominations
were collected until February 14th. Each nominee was notified and was asked to present a resume and answer
a set of questions specific to their respective award. Nominees for Scholar of the Year are chosen by each college at Southern Utah University. Deans from the College Performing and Visual Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Education and Human Development, Science and Engineering, and the School of Business nominate their most honored student within their College. Nominees for Male and Female Athlete of the Year are nominated by Coaches of SUU teams.
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Judging:
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Once nominees have returned their answers to the given questions and a copy of their resume, then nomination committee removed each name and replaced it with a number for the blind judging round. A panel of judges were given a copy of the answers and resumes and asked to rank them on a scale from 1 to 5. 5 being the highest. Scores were tallied and the top 5 finalists in each category were notified to move forward to the live judging round. Sam organized the live judging panels. Each award had a series of students, faculty, staff, and community members. As judges and nominees checked into the front desk, they were awarded an invitation to the Award Reception. Award nominees were then asked to have a professional headshot taken for the award program. Photos were taken by the SUU photography club. Each interview lasted no longer than 15 minutes and were monitored by room monitors. Judges were asked not to discuss the nominee until after their scores were submitted. Light refreshments were supplied for all judges.
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Award Reception:
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Each nominee, judge, and SUU and Cedar City Officials were invited to attend the 66th Annual Thunderbird Award Ceremony Reception. Cami and Gregg were tasked with the Award Reception. The reception was held one hour prior to the Award Ceremony. The event was held upstairs of the Heritage Center Theatre. Light hors d’oeuvres were served. As guests of the reception arrived, they were offered the chance to walk down a red carpet and have their photo taken with Thor the Thunderbird in front of the Thunderbird Awards Background. Award Nominees checked in to the front desk and were awarded a finalist certificate.
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Award Ceremony:
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The Award Ceremony took two months to plan. Myself and Madison took on the task of running and organizing the Award Ceremony. We booked the venue and contracted a professional entertainer that would keep the prestigious and professional feel but still be fun and entertaining. We hired a pianist who also sang. Planning this event also included reaching out to other performing groups on campus and Award Presenters. The Ceremony was hosted by Peter Sham and was followed by an after party for all.
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Goal:
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My goal in planning the 66th Annual Thunderbird Awards was to highlight and recognize students, alumni, faculty and staff of Southern Utah University and community members of cedar city who go above and beyond in their everyday lives to better the lives of past, present, and future T-Birds. This goal was successfully achieved thanks to my amazing event staff.
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Outcome:
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Following the event, my team and myself received high praises for that year’s Thunderbird Award Ceremony. We were complimented on how well the whole event was organized and ran. Nominees were very gracious and award recipients were very thankful for the opportunity.
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This event allowed me to use and grow my knowledge and skills in leadership and even management. This event allowed me to exercise my weakest skill of delegation. I was forced to trust in my team of directors to help me make this event live up to its potential. I am very happy with the way this event turned out and am grateful for the opportunity to use my knowledge and skills and share them with my team.
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I will forever be grateful for Southern Utah University for requiring myself, and all students, to participate in an EDGE Project. It is the goal of the EDGE Program to give SUU graduates an “EDGE” above all other graduates in our field. I am thankful for the opportunity to have been placed in my field of event management and able to place such a prestigious event on my resume and in my portfolio. I would like to offer a special thanks to Madison, Amy, Kathy, Mindy Benson, and my team of event directors for all of their hard work in helping me achieve my dream.