This year the staff of Campus Pride decided that another level of recognition was to be added in this year’s National Voice & Action Leadership Award. The staff felt that there were too many amazing student leaders creating positive change on their respective campuses to only give recognition to the final recipients of the award. This was the main reason the Top 12 Leaders in Action recognition was created. All of the committee members agree that the 40 applicants who applied and the work they have done is the very reason Campus Pride developed this national honor. These students are on the front lines of the movement creating positive change every day. We should be proud and thankful of all the work they do.

Last week the Campus Pride Youth Advisory Board finished its review and selected the Top 12 Leaders in Action. These 12 students will also be forwarded on to the final review process. This final review process will result in the selection of the National Voice & Action Award Recipient(s).

Now please let us introduce you to the Top 12 Leaders in Action (listed in alphabetical order by first name); Daniel Weidel, Bentley University; David Anderson, Eastern Kentucky University; Evan Gallo, Salve Regina University; Hillary Montague-Asp, University of Colorado at Boulder; Jason Goodman, University of Pennsylvania; JeShawna Wholley, Spelman College; Lee Friedlander, University at Albany - SUNY; Masha Makhyagina, McDaniel College; Nicholas Pfost, Michigan State University; Olivia Tai, Cornell University; Samuel Brinton, Kansas State University; and Yvette Lerma, The Pennsylvania State University.

Learn more about these Top 12 Leaders after the jump!

We asked each applicant to give their definition of social privilege; their thoughts are shared next to their picture.

Name: Daniel Weidel
College: Bentley University
Age: 20
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege is the benefits associated with being in a dominant majority in a prejudice society, the absence of obstacles in one’s development and resulting advantage one possesses. It is rarely acknowledged by those who have it and hard to ignore by those who do not.

Name: David Anderson
College: Eastern Kentucky University
Age: 22
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege is the political, economic, religious, and cultural power a group has – oftentimes at the subjugation of minority groups. As it applies to sexuality in the United States, social privilege represents a heterosexual majority that sometimes assumes a sense of hetero-normatively at the expense of non-heterosexuals’ access to equality.

Name: Evan Gallo
College: Salve Regina University
Age: 21
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege is the advantage of holding a societal position in which the system is built around. Meaning, one is considered in the “majority,” a word that has little to do with numbers. To have social privilege is to be considered normal in one’s community and benefit from that normalcy.
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Name: Hillary Montague-Asp
College: University of Colorado at Boulder
Age: 20
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege is an unearned status awarded to people born with certain qualities. While these identities are not gained through personal action, realizing and acknowledging unearned rights is critical in addressing the needs and validating the experiences of underrepresented groups in order to create inclusive environments for all people.

Name: Jason Goodman
College: University of Pennsylvania
Age: 21
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege involves binding people to an under-class and an upper-class, or the powerful and the powerless. Those with social privilege have the political and cultural control over disenfranchised minorities. Privilege provides inequitable advantages to certain people. It usually involves elements of economic and environmental injustice, white privilege, and ethnocentrism.

Name: JeShawna Wholley
College: Spelman College
Age: 22
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege is the advantage that is given to a group due to their close affiliation with the predetermined “norm”. An individual with this privilege maintains access to ample resources and opportunities, just as he/she will have the power to deny them to others.
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Name: Lee Friedlander
College: University at Albany, SUNY
Age: 22
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege allows people to make decisions about how they dress, love, work, etc. without justifying to others that these choices are normal and should be respected. Though this, people also gain access to spaces in society (parks, hospitals, courtrooms, etc.) in which they can be themselves without being fearful of prejudice or harm.

Name: Masha Makhlyagina
College: McDaniel College
Age: 20
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege is the increased status, evident by an actual or feigned decrease in social restrictions, sanctioned by the majority population in charge. For LGBT matters, this means many interpretations, such as the acceptance of female non-heterosexuality but not male, or the acceptance of only those non-heterosexuals who remain silent.

Name: Nicholas Pfost
College: Michigan State University
Age: 21
Social Privilege Definition: While social privilege seems to be, at the very least, an unearned advantage based on some aspect of an individual’s identity, it is (to me) also an ignorant exercise of authority based on that identity and the ability to blissfully not recognize the privilege where it exists. (I use “ignorant” without positive or negative connotation, but as a statement that illuminates a lack of awareness.)
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Name: Olivia Tai
College: Cornell University
Age: 24
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege consists of advantages granted to social statuses that are systematically deemed superior to others. Privileges can be taken for granted or abused when its benefactors are irresponsible with their socially-constructed power. Every individual enjoys social privilege to some degree, and should therefore actively account for their privilege and recognize those oppressed.

Name: Samuel Brinton
College: Kansas State University
Age: 23
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege is the ability to act upon your instincts in an environment that provides you with support for such actions. This tends to be given to the dominant force in a society such a straight white male in the United States.

Name: Yvette Lerma
College: The Pennsylvania State University
Age: 22
Social Privilege Definition: An unearned advantage that is not always perceivable leading to inequalities and the oppression of individuals. This advantage is created and perpetuated by formal and informal societal institutions.
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What is your definition of Social Privilege? We would love to read your thoughts!