The 2021 Tower Awards were hosted by OMED on April 8 and 9. This year marked the 27th year the awards have celebrated the academic achievements of traditionally underrepresented minority students at Georgia Tech.
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The 2021 Tower Awards were hosted by OMED: Educational Services (OMED) on April 8 and 9 across three ceremonies at the Georgia Tech Hotel. This year marked the 27th year the awards have celebrated the academic achievements of traditionally underrepresented students at Georgia Tech. Undergraduate and graduating graduate students were honored.
“On behalf of the Georgia Institute of Technology and the entire OMED team, I salute each of you for your hard work, your persistence, and your dedication,” said Georgia Tech alumnus and OMED Director Sybrina Atwaters via a recorded message played at the beginning of the ceremonies to honorees. “You join a select and proud slate of Tower Award recipients. Many, like myself, keep our awards in our homes and our offices to remind us of our ability to overcome any obstacle that we may face and to excel to the highest heights of excellence.”
More than 1,700 students were eligible for a Tower Award this year, up from 2020 and 2019.
Award categories included: Ph.D. Awards; Master’s Awards (graduating GPA of 3.5 or higher); Graduating Senior Awards (cumulative GPA of 3.15 or higher); Sustained Awards (cumulative GPA of 3.15 or higher); Yearly Awards (GPA of 3.15 or higher over the past three semesters); Transfer/Dual-Degree Awards (cumulative GPA of 3.15 or higher); and First-Year Awards (cumulative GPA of 3.15 or higher). Within each award category, except Ph.D. and Master’s Awards, sub-categories included Bronze (GPA of 3.15-3.49); Silver (GPA of 3.50-3.94); and Gold (GPA of 3.95 or higher).
Special awards were also presented: Laurentino Castro, Titilayo Funso, Jadon Pauling, Jasmine Ramirez, and Amelia Smith took home a Student Leader Impact Award; the Georgia Tech Black Alumni Organization Unsung Hero Award was presented to graduating undergraduate student Kusona Fortingo; and women’s basketball player Kierra Fletcher took home the inaugural Women of Color Student-Athlete Impact Award.
Emeka Obikwelu, who successfully defended his dissertation for a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering in February, said “I want to thank the sponsors for this program and, particularly, I want to thank OMED for doing such a great job – for all that they do.”
OMED, part of Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’s Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, was supported by more than two dozen corporate partners and sponsors who provided honorees with messages of support and raffle giveaways at the ceremonies.
To learn more about the Tower Awards, visit the OMED: Educational Services website at: omed.gatech.edu.