KINGSTON, R.I. – April 11, 2025 – With big smiles, unmatched energy, and heavy hearts, the University of Rhode Island’s best and brightest student leaders gathered Tuesday, April 8, at the Memorial Union to celebrate one another at the 37th annual A. Robert Rainville Student Leadership Awards.

Named in honor of former vice president for Student Affairs and alumnus A. Robert Rainville, the annual awards celebrate students who are successful in various leadership roles while maintaining a good academic record.

The Rainville Awards consist of four categories: the Robert L. Carothers Servant Leadership Award, which recognizes a student who supports the growth of others and the community by embodying the tenets of Robert K. Greenleaf’s servant leadership model; the Student Employee Excellence Award, which recognizes a student’s contributions that provide a positive impact on the URI community through their campus employment; the Team Excellence Award, honoring teams who are mission-driven and passionate and exemplify collaborative and authentic leadership in their work on campus; and the newly named Maureen McDermott Student Leadership Award.

“When I look out at the faces in this room, I’m filled with hope for our future,” said URI President Marc Parlange. “You are students who see a problem and think, ‘How can I solve this?’ You see a community and think, ‘How can I serve?’ And you see an opportunity and think, ‘How can I lead?’ You see beyond the day-to-day and instead seek to make a lasting impact.

“These are qualities that you will carry with you throughout your lives, wherever you go and whatever comes your way. You are the next generation of leaders and change makers. I am so grateful that each of you chose URI.”

This year’s ceremony struck a deeper chord with the URI community as the Student Leadership Award was officially renamed in honor of McDermott, the former Student Involvement and Memorial Union director who passed away in November. McDermott’s family attended Tuesday’s event as colleagues and students spoke about her “grace, joy, and passion for helping others succeed” and willingness to help countless students “find their place and sense of belonging.”

“The Student Leadership Award honors a student who has positively contributed to the campus community by empowering others and inspiring those around them, and this year that award holds even deeper significance, honoring the life and legacy of someone who inspired many of us in this room,” said Memorial Union, Student Involvement, and Student Leadership interim director Melissa Boyd-Colvin, a Rainville Award recipient in 1998.

“If there’s one thing Maureen taught me, it was the true meaning of strength. No matter how much she had on her plate, she always showed up with a smile on her face. She never let her bad days become anyone else’s bad days,” said Office of Student Involvement graduate assistant Juju Al-Amir. “The Rainville Awards ceremony was Maureen’s favorite night of the year, and now the Student Leadership Award holds another beautiful and impactful meaning to it.”

Lauren Peckham ’25 of East Haddam, Connecticut, received this year’s Servant Leadership Award. A triple major in criminology and criminology justice, political science, and psychology, Peckham has served as a student event advisor within the Office of Student Involvement and plays a key role in helping campus organizations plan events, navigate the registration process, and engage students in a wide variety of activities. She also serves as vice president of P.I.N.K. Women, where she helped raise money for local women’s shelters, and the speaker of the assembly for the Student Senate. After graduating in May, Peckham will continue her studies at the Quinnipiac University School of Law.

“I’m grateful for my grandparents and my friends and my family for being my foundation and my greatest motivation in this world,” Peckham said, “and to Maureen McDermott for teaching me how to be kind and how to be strong and have faith even when it’s difficult.”

The 2025 Student Employee Excellence Award recipient, electrical engineering and computer science major Evan O’Neill ’26 of Medford, Massachusetts, serves as the program assistant of officials for URI’s Intramural Sports within Campus Recreation. In that role, he aids in the training, development and supervision of more than 60 officials for flag football, softball, volleyball, and basketball referees and clinicians. He also encouraged clinicians to take on roles as on-court evaluators, where they film games and provide written feedback to referees.

“This whole process has been an honor,” O’Neill said. “Thank you to everyone in the intramural sports community for working hard alongside me. It makes these work shifts, while long, very enjoyable.”

Now in its third decade of existence, the Muslim Student Association received the Team Excellence Award for its work in creating a supportive space where Muslim students can thrive spiritually, socially, and academically in addition to promoting awareness and understanding of Islam within the University through dialogue, educational programs, and cultural initiatives. Through its participation in Charity Week, the association raised more than $4,000 for orphans of underprivileged backgrounds in addition to partnering with Dining Services to provide halal meal options during Ramadan and working with the Academic Testing Center to offer accommodations for students who were fasting.

“We haven’t just existed – we’ve actually endured. We’ve thrived and we’ve survived,” said association president and Student Senate vice president Sanah Feroz. “To hear our name called was an honor. Post-9/11 Islamophobia was very strong, and MSA was born through that. We started with just three members and today we’ve grown to a team of eight wonderful executive members and a team of over 100 students.”

MacKenzie Fitzgerald ’25 of Morris Plains, New Jersey, the recipient of the Maureen McDermott Student Leadership Award, has been an impactful peer leader as a member of the Kappa Delta sorority and the Leadership Institute and North Woods Challenge Course through the Center for Student Leadership Development in addition to her role as an assistant and peer mentor in multiple classes. A double major in political science and psychology, Fitzgerald also served on the Student Affairs Student Advisory Committee and URI’s Diversity Dialogues, an undergraduate-led initiative that offers dialogue-based diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice workshops for student groups and organizations on campus.

“These experiences are what makes college so impactful,” Fitzgerald said. “Connecting people to people is the most important part of my leadership and I always work to leave a place better than I found it.”

Michael Parente, director of communications and marketing in the URI Division of Student Affairs, wrote this news release.