Seniors Chad Berg, Mariann Kukielka and Harrison Aslesen have been named finalists for the 2015 Tommie Award.
Vern Klobassa, director of student engagement, said 1,805 people voted this year, down from last year’s turnout of 2,153. Klobassa said this year’s number is comparable to those of years past.
Aslesen, who has participated in Summit Singers, Eastern European Club, KUST and American Marketing Association, said he was honored to be a finalist.
“You know honestly, I am just shocked. There’s so many great nominees, so it’s exciting, but I feel like everybody is so deserving,” Aslesen said.
Kukielka is on the swim and dive team, the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and in Delta Sigma Pi and also serves as a first year commuter adviser. Kukielka was in class when she received the announcement.
“I saw the notification for the email pop up on my phone, and I was sitting next to one of my good friends on the swim team, and all I did was just tapped her leg and showed her my phone, and we both made these little freaked out faces,” Kukielka said.
Berg is involved in Summit Singers, Undergraduate Student Government, STAR, the board of trustees finance committee and Sigma Tau Omega. He said he hasn’t had time to process the news, but he told his parents as soon as he found out.
“I was actually about a minute away from an informational interview. (I) saw it in my email and I was like, that’s pretty neat, I guess. I’ll forward that to my parents,” Berg said. “Then I went into the interview and kind of had to forget about it. I haven’t had a lot of time – because I’ve been running around all day – to digest it, but it’s exciting.”
Berg said Aslesen is one of his roommates, and he knows Kukielka is “very accomplished.” Regardless how the final vote turns out, he said his time at St. Thomas will still be memorable.
“I’ve been at St. Thomas for four years, and through STAR, through USG and especially through Summit Singers, I’ve just been doing what I love to do,” Berg said. “If that turns into a Tommie Award, all the better. But at the end of the day, I think that I already have all the blessings that I could have gotten.”
Kukielka said the St. Thomas community has allowed her to succeed.
“I have been able to meet all sorts of amazing different kinds of people in different areas across campus, so I suppose I’ve been really lucky to make connections with different people,” Kukielka said.
Aslesen echoed Kukielka’s point about connecting with the St. Thomas community.
“I think just being nice to people and being genuine is probably what contributed to (my) success,” Aslesen said.
The final vote will occur Feb. 9-11, and Klobassa encouraged all students to vote.
“It’s a great opportunity to pick a person who represents the ideals of leadership, scholarship and campus involvement,” Klobassa said.