Alfred University News

Alfred University AKO chapter announces leadership awards

Alfred University’s chapter of Alpha Kappa Omicron has named two current students winners of its 2022 AKO Leadership Awards.


Alfred University’s chapter of Alpha Kappa Omicron has named two current students winners of its 2022 AKO Leadership Awards.

Emily Woo, a sophomore fine arts major, with a minor in business administration, is recipient of the 2022 AKO Achievement Award. Natalie Reynolds, a junior fine art major (English minor) is winner of the 2022 AKO Social Change Leadership Award. Emily and Natalie will each be awarded an honorarium.

The AKO Achievement Award is given to a sophomore woman who has demonstrated excellence in personal academic leadership and honors the high standards of scholastic performance. 

“Throughout my life, I’ve been taught what great leadership looks like from the incredible and strong female leaders I have been lucky enough to experience. They have guided my perception of what phenomenal leadership looks like and it’s because of their influence that I am here today,” Emily commented. “I am honored to be considered a leader and I hope that my influence can encourage others to become leaders as well.”

The AKO Social Change Leadership Award is given to a junior woman who has demonstrated superior efforts in creating change-for-the-good for the Alfred University community. An emphasis is placed on active, authentic service-based leadership which creates sustainable change.

“I applied for the AKO Social Change Award because I was encouraged by several AU Faculty to do so. I am honored that they thought of me even in terms of applying for the award and more so that I was chosen to receive it,” said Natalie, who serves as president of the Alfred University Student Senate. “I am reassured in my leadership efforts by being recognized and am determined to continue developing my leadership practice while being a female role model on campus and in the community.”

The AKO Leadership Awards program is a collaboration between alumnae of Alpha Kappa Omicron, an Alfred University sorority established in 1944 as interfaith and interracial, with the ideals of truth understanding and sisterhood in equity, and the Beth Robinson Judson Leadership Center of Alfred University.