Angy Nicoll Aguilar & Darsev Kaur

The endowed scholarship, the Hilaire Pickett ’08 Leadership Grant, is awarded to students that participate in leadership education and development at Elon. Awards are granted to support students in their junior or senior year to pursue leadership internships, research, or legacy efforts. The students must demonstrate a significant commitment to their organizations and academics and be active in contributions that have a positive impact on the Elon community.

This year’s award recipient will go to Darsev Kaur and Angy Aguilar.

Darsev is currently a second-year student studying Religious Studies and Leadership Studies. Active in our campus community, Darsev served as a facilitator for Barefoot Dialogue and member of the Pre-Health Society and the Asian Pacific Student Association. She is a member of the Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellows program where she also served in leadership on the Cannon Committee and a seventh and eighth grade facilitator for the Alamance Youth Leadership Academy. Recently Darsev was recently selected to be an Elon Multifaith Scholar where she will be exploring and researching Sikh practices and traditions. The Hilaire Pickett grant will support Darsev’s continued faculty-mentored research project titled Analyzing Devotional Sikh Worship and Everyday Religiosity in Keshgarh Sahib Gurudwara. Through this experience, Darsev will gain a deeper understanding of the perspectives of diverse global communities through this work. She hopes to create social change and influence her peers to engage in learning more about different communities. Her recommender shared that “Darsev hungers for new knowledge and experiences and is a highly engaged learner. She is definitely a talented emerging leader.”

Our second recipient is Angy Aguilar. Angy is a third-year student studying Computer Science, Entrepreneurship and Leadership Studies. Her leadership involves serving as a volunteer for Elon’s Village Project and a member of the Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellows program. Angy also serves as the co-founder of Stem-ista, an educational and entertaining board game for young girls aimed to challenge stereotypes that exist around STEM, expand young girls’ knowledge, help build confidence, and ultimately inspire the next generation of STEM professionals. The Hilaire Pickett grant will support Angy’s quest to advance social justice in engineering. Angy will be launching an antiracism platform called “Rewriting the Code” for college women in computer science related fields. Through this program, Angy is researching and developing ideas around the integration of field engineering with social justice inquiry and discussion. Her recommender noted that Angy’s strong initiative and ability to work on her own or in teams have had a very positive and significant impact on campus. They stated that Angy “infuses a sense of innovation and creativity in her work and never misses the mark; instead, she inspires others to follow suit.”

Please join me in congratulating this year’s Hilaire Pickett ’08 Grant awardees, Darsev Kaur and Angy Aguilar.