The LGBT Student Leadership Award recognizes a student for leadership and outstanding contributions in educational, social and/or political activism for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people on campus.

2009 LGBT Student Leadership Award

ELLIOTT DEVORE
Elliot Devore is a junior majoring in psychology. Last year, Devore was selected as an orientation leader, one of a group of 24 students who serve as advisers to more than 5,000 freshmen in the summer. Devore facilitated several changes to the orientation program to be more inclusive of LGBT people, including the addition of a skit that included a gay character who was struggling to come out to his roommate. Devore received feedback from several students expressing their gratitude for his words in the skit, and they emphasized that they felt they could rely on him as a friend and resource when they started college. He also created a program for his fellow orientation leaders on LGBT issues. The presentation was so well-received that Devore presented it again at the Southern Regional Orientation Workshop in March. Devore will be an orientation leader again this summer and will certainly touch more students with his open and honest attitude.