Slippery Rock University this week recognized students and faculty with Celebration of Achievement. Among those is Nikol Damato, a senior dual history and interdisciplinary programs major from Ellwood City.
Highlighting the awards is the selection of SRU’s finalist for the Syed R. Ali-Zaidi Award for Academic Excellence, which is given to a graduating senior in Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education who exemplifies academic excellence and involvement. Damato was selected as the University’s nominee by SRU President William Behre. The winner will be selected by the board of governors later this year.
Damato, a dual major from Ellwood City.
Damato has already won a variety of scholarships and awards while at SRU, including the President’s Civic Leadership Award and as a Board of Governors Scholar. An Honors College student, Damato was active in a variety of roles on campus including a Student Government Association senator, a First-Year Leader Scholar Mentor, a student worker for the Office for Community-Engaged Learning and an intern at the Macoskey Center for Sustainability Education and Research.
Among her roles with OCEL, Damato helped coordinate global service learning programs, including a program in Cochabamba, Bolivia. With the Macoskey Center, she organized a food justice workshop series for students and formed a coalition with campus and community leaders to address student food insecurity on campus. She also completed a service-learning project in Puerto Rico through the nonprofit organization Caras con Causa.
Damato also excelled in research, as her poster “Suburbs and Scholarship: Women in Higher Education in Bellevue, PA, 1904-1914,” won second place at the Pennsylvania Historical Association Annual Meeting in 2019.
“Nikol exemplifies the gifts and qualities that I wish for every undergraduate student in the State System,” Behre wrote in her recommendation letter. “Clearly, she is not satisfied with getting by, and she lives to maximize all opportunities available to her. I maintain that her greatest quality is using those opportunities to improve and enhance the world around her. She is a model of SRU’s academic best and the values represented by the Syed Ali-Zaidi Award for Academic Excellence.”
Damato plans to pursue a law degree after graduating.
Also being recognized are the Presidential Undergraduate Scholars, which are given to the top 20 seniors, juniors and sophomores based on overall grade-point average of those who meet a minimum credit hour requirement at SRU. Recipients will receive a Wendell August Forge coaster, ribbon and certificate in the mail.
In previous years, Slippery Rock University conducted a Celebration of Achievement with an awards ceremony that recognized faculty and students for their outstanding contributions in the areas of academics, research, scholarship, creative activities and more. While the celebration will continue this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, it will come in the form of a video presentation rather than an on-campus ceremony. But that alteration won’t deter from the tremendous achievements of the group of honorees.
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