I finally did it.
I nominated myself for an award.
The Rice Black Student Association hosts a Black Excellence Gala every year around Black History Month. For this event, they offer a few awards that require nomination by the student body - including the Outstanding Graduate Student Award. This is an award I have noticed every year since my first year (that’s five separate times!!)… and none of the years have any of my peers put my name forth as a recommendation.
This is despite having served the Black Graduate Student Association in both official and unofficial capacities - hosting annual personal finance workshops, spreading awareness of events, and just being present for different members of the community.
This is also while I served as a bridge between resources and current/prospective graduate students, particularly those in the Black community. Over my time at Rice, I’ve been a Wellbeing Director for the Graduate Student Association, a Graduate Student Ambassador with the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, and organized GEM@Rice with the help of Jennifer Hunter.
My face has been some of everywhere, and I’ve helped so many graduate students in their matriculation to Rice. Yet no one had ever considered suggesting me for an award that acknowledges a Black graduate student who goes above and beyond for the community.
Devastating? Not really. More disheartening… but also understandable!
I have been here for such a long time that my peers have cycled through multiple times, nearly no one has been with me for my entire graduate degree. So, any given year, some may have believed I had already received this award in a previous year. And some years, there were absolutely other people who deserved the nomination 10x more than me, so they were nominated! Some don’t even look at their email in time enough to nominate. Etcetera, etcetera.
But I wanted the opportunity to at least have my name in the hat, so this year:
I nominated myself.
You may be thinking, “Hmm, that’s sad/pitiful/vain to nominate yourself for an award.” And to that, I would say that was my original thinking as well.
But all of the awards I have seen that accept nominations have another layer of criteria to be able to receive the award. For the award I refer to throughout this blog, the extra selection criterion was that my name was placed amongst the other nominees on a ballot.
So, yes, I nominated myself.
But also, yes, amongst all of the nominees, my peers voted for me to receive the award.
This experience helped me to step outside of my inner negative dialogue to understand that my peers are actually viewing me as an important part of the graduate student community, even if they did not take active steps to have me recognized as such.
Everyone is living in their own complete world full of trials, tribulations, and triumphs.
Your peers are seeing you as the wonderful addition to the community that you are. As the scholar who is placing your university on the map in a new field. As a person to be celebrated.
They just might not be actively thinking of this when the time for nomination comes.
So if you see an award, fellowship, or opportunity whose description matches your self-image, try for it. Even if it requires a nomination. You can be your own nominator.
I hope that this anecdote gives you the courage to nominate yourself for an award that you believe you are a viable candidate for. Just because no one else recommended you doesn’t mean they don’t believe you deserve the award.
About the author:
Daziyah Sullivan is a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. candidate from Jacksonville, FL. Her Bachelor's was obtained from Florida A&M University. Read more.
Further Reading: