By: Madalyn Borek '19
The recipient of the Josephine Daggett Prize is selected by the faculty and the prize is awarded annually to the senior deemed to be of the best character and conduct.
“Always doing.” That’s how our Daggett Prize recipient is described. More importantly, our Daggett recipient’s motivation flows from remarkable and laudable qualities: compassion, altruism, generosity, kind-heartedness, determination, selflessness, and a resilient positive approach to life. A “team-builder,” our Daggett recipient approaches everyone with an open mind and is open to considering all sides of an argument. Never too busy for anyone who needs to talk and never seeming to pre-judge the other, our Daggett recipient has been called upon time and again to lead, to teach, and to heal.
Recognizing her scholarly abilities and her record of leadership, our Daggett recipient was selected, from a large field of other worthy candidates, as a Posse Scholar. She quickly emerged as a resource for her fellow Posse scholars, someone they could count on. Once she joined the Union community, others, many others, came to have the same expectation of our Daggett recipient. Being someone we could count on soon led to leadership roles: President of the Black Student Union, President of the Lambda Pi Chi Sorority, President of the Heavenly Voices Gospel Choir, House Manager at Iris House, and Captain of the women’s basketball team.
And many took note. We took note when she helped organize “Blackout Week” and a “die in.” Those who benefited from her generous volunteer activities took note, such as children in the Homework and Skills Development after school program and the Kenney Center’s Arts, Books, and Crafts Program. The Schenectady community took note, benefitting as it did from her regular participation in the John Calvin Toll Day of Service and U-CARE Day. Community non-profits took note when she produced a video for Things of My Very Own – an organization providing crisis intervention services to children experiencing abuse and neglect. The larger academic community took note when our Daggett recipient spoke at the “Dream Big” conference hosted by the University of Massachusetts. We tried to say thank you, by awarding her with the Female Scholar Athlete Award and the William Lockyer Community Service Award.
Union is a better place for having this “catalyst for positive change” among us. All of us who’ve had a chance to know and work with her are better for it. We take note. And, it is in recognition of who she is, the qualities she embodies, and all that she’s done to improve us and the world in which we all live that we present Krystal (Tru) Edwards with the Josephine Daggett Prize.