Alumni Association honors Ramachandran for 'visionary stewardship'

BY JIA-RUI CHONG

Roger A. Clay Jr., chair of the Stanford Alumni Association's board of directors, presented Sohini Ramachandran with the J. E. Wallace Sterling Award at Saturday's Senior Class Day luncheon. Four runner-up book prizes were given to Lindsay Arnold, Miriam Beyer, Andrew Blotky and Seth Cohen. The award, first given in 1979, recognizes outstanding student service to the university though undergraduate activities and potential for continued service after graduation.

"Each year, I hear that the incoming class is the best class that's ever been chosen. If that's true, and you haven't screwed up in the last four years, this must be the best class that's every graduated from here. And this competition this year proves the point," Clay said.

President John Hennessy, left, and Roger Clay Jr., chair of the Alumni Association's board of directors, right, presented Sohini Ramachandran with the J.E. Wallace Sterling Award for volunteer service at Stanford. Photo: L.A. Cicero

The nominations this year produced an "excellent batch" of candidates, he said. The recommendation of four book prizes "is an extraordinary credit to the talents and devotion and promise of your class."

Arnold was praised for tireless efforts as a coordinator during Admit Weekend and New Student Orientation, for outstanding contributions as a speaker on a Think Again tour panel, and for fostering Stanford pride among her freshmen as a resident assistant in Cedro.

Beyer's citation honored her devotion to advancing awareness and understanding of women's issues though her work at the Women's Community Center and the Women's Coalition, her conscientious efforts to educate the Stanford community, and her commitment to transform ideas into action.

Blotky received kudos for creating the Student Organizing Committee for the Arts as well as the arts festival called "An Art Affair," for enthusiastic service as an ambassador to high school college fairs, and for playing a large role in strengthening Stanford's arts life.

Cohen was cited for exceptional leadership and dedication to the Stanford in Government program, for integrity and commitment in coordinating on-campus responses to Sept. 11, and for his professional role as a Stanford tour guide.

Winner Ramachandran's citation highlighted her long list of accomplishments, which included "visionary stewardship" of New Student Orientation 2001, instinctive guidance to freshmen as an academic adviser for three years, "sage advice" to numerous university advisory boards and -- all the while -- mastering a rigorous academic program in honors research. Somehow, Clay said, she was "adroitly discovering 28 hours in a 24-hour day."

Praising "her original spirit, her lack of pretense, her warm and disarming smile and her radiant, contagious, undying love of Stanford," Clay handed the math and computer science major her prizes: a lifetime membership to the Stanford Alumni Association, a Tiffany medallion clock and a copy of Stanford, Portrait of a University.