Every spring, Ursinus College presents a series of Alumni Awards, honoring and celebrating the accomplishments of alumni with an annual presentation. Awards presented include the Alumni Service Award, Alumni Professional Achievement Award, Alumni Humanitarian Award, Alumni Rising Star Award, Alumni Senior Award, and The Jeff Corson Outstanding Friend of Ursinus Award. All recipients must be an alum, with the exception of the recipients Senior Alumni Awards, given to students from the current senior class. This year, the Senior Alumni Award Honorees are seniors Nethmi Ediriweera and Aidan Nadell. “These awards recognize two deserving seniors from the Class of 2025 who, based on their undergraduate accomplishments, show promise of becoming leaders in their future careers and making significant contributions to their professions, their communities, and/or Ursinus College,” is the award description given by UC Alumni. Ediriweera and Nadell are prime examples of that, having gone above and beyond throughout their time at Ursinus. Ediriweera is a public health major minoring in politics, sociology, and international relations. She shared her thoughts prior to being told she’ll receive the award: “I know that I’ve been really engaged in school in multiple different ways. I have been contributing since freshman year, and it would have been nice to get it, but I know the process is very difficult, so it was a bit of a surprise I would say.”
She went on: “I feel very privileged and lucky to even be nominated in that sense and be recognized by the people, because when we do things, usually we don’t do things because we are expecting to get an award … We do things because we love the community, and we love to support it, and we love to uphold it.” Nadell, who created his own major of behavioral economics, combining business and psychology, while minoring in management studies, shared this sentiment, stating, “Especially in this season of senior year, there’s a lot of recognition and external validation, something that I always try to be motivated by the internal validation of – if I had not gotten the award, it still wouldn’t have changed how I felt about my experience here.” Nadell and Ediriweera have worked together in Students Today Alumni Together (STAT) since their freshman year, and co-lead meditation every week.
“It’s been really nice to grow alongside you,” expressed Nadell to Ediriweera after reflecting on that time together. “We’ve been there since freshman year. That has been a big part of life in terms of school spirit, giving back, and doing things for philanthropy, for school, and things like that. Then we started running mediation together!” added Ediriweera. Both honorees have been preparing for the two-to-three minute speech they will share after receiving the award. Ediriweera expressed some of her gratitude she will talk about, commenting, “We wouldn’t be here if we did not have the support from the faculty and staff, friends, colleagues, and peers. Coming here, spending time with friends, being able to laugh and smile through certain situations, have always helped continue to do the work that we’ve been doing over the years.” Likewise, Nadell shared some of his thoughts: “I’ll miss being a part of this community. It is bittersweet because for as much as I will miss the people, it creates spaces and opportunities for the next set of leaders to be able to have. There was an Ursinus before us, and there will certainly be an Ursinus after us.”