Graduates try to live up to award

Four months after being given the Stahr Award, effectively being named some of the most distinguished seniors at IU, Gail Goldberg and Erin Ransford are trying to find their way in the post-graduate world.\nThe Stahr Award is given to three or five recipients each year -- students that have shown remarkable leadership skills. The award is named after former IU President Elvis J. Stahr Jr., who succeeded Herman B Wells and served from 1962 to 1968 as IU's 12th president. \nThe award winners were actively involved in campus affairs and were often the ones to step up successfully and take control. Each was committed to a number of activities, ranging from student government to minority awareness.\nGoldberg was unable to attend the ceremony for the award because she was student teaching in Australia until recently. With a social studies education degree, Goldberg said she has decided to pursue a career in teaching. At IU, she worked with the Collins Living Learning Center, which provided her with some of the leadership and teaching skills she plans to utilize in her career. Goldberg said she is confident these experiences at IU will help her as a teacher. \n"I've learned how to stand up in front of groups, to be a disciplinarian at times and I also had to learn how to work with people," Goldberg said.\nGoldberg credits her friends and family for her success in leadership. She said she values the friendships she established in college that helped motivate her, as well as her father's principles of education and activism. \nRansford earned a degree in public health from IU and currently is looking for a job in Chicago. Her future employers will undoubtedly notice her long list of leadership involvement at IU. While she might list them on her resumé, and rightfully so, having a long list of leadership activities was not Ransford's objective for getting involved.\n"I'm kind of a self-starter," Ransford said. "I like to see things get done. I like to be active and do things to make a difference. Nobody told me to get involved with student government."\nRansford is grateful for the good relationships she had with a lot of IU's administrators, which gave her several opportunities. She is also grateful for her years at IU in general because they gave her strong leadership skills that she said hopefully will take her far in her career.\n"I've had a chance to work with a variety of people from fourth graders to students in my peer group to administrators," Ransford said. "That has definitely given me the communication skills that will of course be beneficial in the 'real world.' My experiences at IU have given me the confidence that if I want something to happen then it's possible." \nThe five Stahr awards were announced in April at the Spring Recognition Banquet where these IU graduates were recognized, along with other senior leaders, student scholars and outstanding faculty.\nThe other winners were Aimee Herring, Christine Stejskal and Edward Vargas.