Two Nicholls students were honored for their achievements at the Student Government Association/Student Programming Association/Peer Assistance banquet Friday night. Ben Landry, mass communication senior from Thibodaux, and Denise Guidry, government senior from Church Point, were voted Mr. and Ms. Nicholls, respectively, by their peers earlier this semester.
“This is probably the biggest honor you can get from the University,” Landry said. “After you get it, it’s like, ‘What more can happen?'”
He said he was very surprised and pleased to receive this honor.
“It’s not really something you hope for or work towards,” he said. “But when it happens, it’s just great.”
Guidry agrees that this award is a big honor.
“I was excited that I made the list of finalists,” she said. “It’s just a great honor.”
She said she was “quite surprised” when she heard her name announced.
“This is just such a big honor, and it’s exciting to know that your peers went out to vote for you,” she said.
Landry is a member of Phi Kappa Theta fraternity, public relations director of the SGA, a member of the orientation team, 1999 Homecoming king, was listed in the latest edition of Who’s Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities and is “a decently nice guy,” he said.
Guidry is president of the SPA and has been on its executive board for three years, House Director for Babington Hall, a member of the NAACP, Peer Assistance, the Food Advisory Association, the Residence Hall Association, a member of the Homecoming Court in 2000 and has been in two editions of Who’s WHO Among Students in American Colleges in Universities.
To be nominated, a person must have 85 hours, a 2.5 cumulative GPA and have a list of accomplishments which correspond to a points system. A board, made of SGA members and Dr. Joanne Ferriot, vice president of student affairs, tabulates the points, then places the names on the ballot.
“If there are two people who are above the other nominees, then two people go on the ballot,” Landry said. “But if there are three people or four people, then that many will go on the ballot.”
Students vote on the finalists during the SGA/SPA elections each spring. The winner is not revealed until the banquet at the end of the semester.
There were three finalists for both Mr. and Ms. Nicholls this year. Other candidates for Mr. Nicholls were Jason Gaudet, and Scott Duplantis. Other candidates for Ms. Nicholls were Katie Naquin, and Lisa Pierce.
At the banquet next year, Landry and Guidry will announce the next winners.
