One of the highlights of the International Students For Liberty Conference is the Annual Awards Presentation. In 2009, Students For Liberty began to recognize outstanding students and student groups that have distinguished themselves in the battle for liberty on campus. That tradition has continued with the awards becoming more competitive every year as more and more students demonstrate their outstanding accomplishments for liberty. Award recipients are chosen based on their hard work, organizational skills, value creation, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Check out past winners from 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.
Voting for the 2015 ISFLC Awards Nominees
Now is the time to vote for the 2015 Student Awards nominees to be awarded at the ISFLC! Just like previous years, we accepted nominations for the Student Group of the Year, Event of the Year, and Student of the Year, and have chosen the top 4 students, groups, and events for you to vote on. Keep in mind, you can only vote once per day, but can come back each and every day until the deadline to vote for your favorite nominees.
Voting is now CLOSED. Come to the Awards Ceremony on Saturday, February 14th at 7:30 pm in the Ballroom to see who wins!
Student of the Year
Ty Hicks – Central Michigan University
United States
Ty Hicks was the president of Central Michigan University Young Americans for Liberty in 2014. Ty brought several successful events to CMU’s campus, both in the Spring and Fall of 2014. He hosted Lawrence Reed in February who brought in nearly 70 attendees. Then, he hosted the first ever YAL Michigan State Convention which had over 100 attendees. In the Fall, Ty hosted a kick-off meeting with over forty attendees and formed a Liberty in North Korea Rescue Team to work alongside his members’ existing Young Americans for Liberty chapter. He then brought author Michael Malice to CMU to speak on North Korea and brought over 75 attendees to the event. Over the summer, Ty helped bring Michigan leaders to the YAL National Convention where he trained new student leaders on working with their campus bureaucracies, as well. Focusing on improving the existing network of students in Michigan rather than artificially build it up, Ty conducted, on average, two campus visits a week in the Fall. Utilizing the valuable resources through the Campus Coordinator program, Ty was able to save multiple campus groups from dissolution and train new leaders to take up the mantle at their campuses. Ty, after being accepted into SFL’s Professional Advancement Fellowship, led a unique project within the program. He headed the “Students For Liberty Stands With Liberty in North Korea” activism initiative to bring the North Korean issue to the forefront of the libertarian movement. By creating and identifying resources for students, both educational and activism-based, Ty was able to educate dozens of SFL leaders on the issues facing the North Korean people and help several organize LiNK-based activism on their campuses. He’s now on staff with Young Americans for Liberty as the Midwest Regional Director, but plans to stay active in SFL’s network going forward.
Ana Jakšić – European Students For Liberty
Serbia
Ana Jakšić is a Local Coordinator with European Students for Liberty in Serbia. She organized a panel called “Legalization of Cannabis in Serbia,” which served as the first public debate regarding the legal status of cannabis in Serbia. The panel was a success, with over 200 people in the audience and wide media coverage. Besides all relevant media in Serbia, some papers in Croatia and Bosnia also reported on the event. Ana brought experts from different fields of study to discuss the possibility of decriminalization/legalization of cannabis as well as the failures of the war on drugs. In April 2014, she organized the second ESFL Serbia seminar for 25 high school students who are interested in liberal political philosophy. This was a two day seminar, which was held in the art gallery Ozon, located right across the Parliament. Out of those 25 attendees, five joined her student group after they enrolled in college and two of them became Serbian local coordinators. Ana also organized and moderated a panel on the LGBT movement in Serbia. More than 50 people came to the event to hear from leading LGBT activists. She was also in charge of promotion for the 2014 Belgrade Regional Conference. More than 280 people showed up to the event.
Rachel Connor – University of Queensland
Australia
Rachel Conner is the founder & President the U of Queensland Students for Liberty group in Australia. Under her leadership, the UQ SFL club went from 10 members to well over 100 in the first year, becoming the largest SFL club in Australia and being officially registered with the university. She helped run successful stalls on the market days, by displaying a giant Nolan chart that included the scores of ~300 students and distributing libertarian literature from appropriate Australian think-tanks (IPA, CIS) and SFL. Rachel then wrote a “how to” guide for market day, which is now used by SFL clubs across Australia. She is the co-founder and VP of Australian & New Zealand Students for Liberty, and helped coordinate the first ANZ SFL conference, which brought together around 100 students and a dozen speakers in Melbourne. As Vice President of ANZ SFL, Rachel created a team of state-based regional directors who work with her to start and grow SFL clubs in their region. In addition to her work in Australia, Rachel was has worked to bring SFL to Southeast Asia.
Eduardo Lopes – Coletivo Nabuco
Brazil
Eduardo Lopes is on the Executive Board of Estudantes Pela Liberdade in Brazil. He studies physics at Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. He is focused on activism, particularly trying to share the free market ideas with people on the left. For his accomplishments, Eduardo is now the regional coordinator for the Northeast region. As Regional Director, he was able to find state coordinators for all nine states in the region, as well as create strong ties between EPL and the already established pro-liberty groups in the areas. He helped form a Free Market Advocacy group called the Nabuco Collective, which has been successful in advocating for the principles and ideals of a free society and economy. He also organized an event called “Freedom On the Road” in his city, in a partnership with the Free Order Institute, in which national libertarian speakers went to university auditoriums across the country to discuss pro-liberty ideas. He attended the EPL National Conference in Sao Paulo and was selected for the EPL 2015 Leadership Meeting which will happen later in the year. He is planning to become a professor after college.
Student Event of the Year
We Want Classes – Estudiantes por la Libertad
Honduras
National State Universities in Latin America are known for having prominent left-wing student groups willing to use force to gain power. Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia and even Costa Rica have faced university takeovers by left wing student groups. Last year, when Federacion de Asociaciones de Estudiantes and MER-LZ attempted to shut down Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras, Estudiantes por la Libertad resisted. This is the first case in which a takeover attempt has been stopped by other students, organized in this case by Estudiantes por la Libertad Honduras. This sets a precedent for all pro-liberty students in Latin America and communicates a clear message: University takeovers ARE illegal and students have no right to kick other students out of their classrooms. For their efforts, Estudiantes por la Libertad appeared in the two largest newspapers in Honduras and even got interviews with a Guatemalan radio station. After the counter protests, they are now involved in 3 of the 5 universities in the San Pedro Sula and at a university of the capital city of Honduras, Tegucigalpa. Estudiantes por la Libertad Honduras is now well-known by the student population and there has been more interest in the group.
Ukraine Summit – European Students For Liberty
Ukraine
In a time of great crisis, European Students For Liberty leaders in Ukraine organized a summit to discuss methods to protect the liberties of those in the region. The Ukraine Summit was held in the center of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The event was held bilingually, with some sessions held in English and others in Ukrainian, with translation for all sessions. The opening consisted of a memorial for Kakha Bendukidze, who was supposed to be the keynote speaker at the event, but unfortunately passed away two weeks prior. Bendukidze was the former Georgian Minister of Economy, designated Minister of Economy for Ukraine, and the most influential libertarian figure in Eastern Europe. Speakers at the Summit included Andrei Illiarionov (Cato Senior Fellow and former Putin-advisor), Tom Palmer (Atlas Network), Vera Kichanova (Moscow student protest leader), Vladimir Fedorin (Editor-in-chief Forbes Ukraine), and Andrei Babitsky (war reporter). Furthermore, several SFL student leaders from Ukraine and Europe were engaged in an interactive panel debate on student activism for liberty. This event also marked the release of the Ukrainian edition of SFL’s book “The Morality of Capitalism.”
The Interdisciplinary Symposium – Clube Farroupilha
Brazil
The Farroupilha Interdisciplinary Symposium (SIF14) marked the one year anniversary of Clube Farroupilha, the SFL group at the Federal University of Santa Maria in Brazil. SIF14 took place at the Itaimbe Palace Hotel and was attended by over 350 students. The theme for the event was “Inconvenient Truths.” Each session was named after one inconvenient truth, and was carried by a interdisciplinary speaker. Some of the sessions offered were: “The 2008 crisis was created by the State,” presented by Helio Beltrao from the Brazilian Mises Institute; “Political campaigns are made to fool you,” presented by the political scientist Fabio Ostermann; and “The myth of social inequality,” presented by the best-seller author Leandro Narloch. SIF’14 also reflected on the positive growth of the libertarian community in Brazil. Most of the attendees confirmed that after the event they considered themselves to be libertarians or classic liberals, with a small minority of conservative-libertarians and social-libertarians. At the time of this submission, the committee that organized the event is preparing a general guide that will serve as reference for other EPL events. The event has helped Clube Farroupilha grow exponentially in the last several weeks, delivering a promising 2015 to come.
Kaluzapalooza – Texas Students For Liberty
United States
Kaluzapalooza was a social to commemorate one of the founders of Students For Liberty in Texas, Andrew Kaluza, who passed away this past year. There was a party, commemorative shirts for sale, and enough money was raised to fulfill Andrew’s dream of taking students from Austin to DC by bus for the ISFLC. The charter bus is now completely filled and Texas will be well represented at the conference. It was a 4 hour event with art, black light dancing, a professional DJ, and much more. This was the most effective method of transmitting the dreams and goals of Andrew Kaluza for SFL in Texas. The event unified the region, reminded them where they came from, as well as who is responsible for many of the rockstar campus coordinators who have gone through the Texas leadership pipeline.
Student Group of the Year
African Liberty Students Organization at University of Ibadan
Nigeria
The African Students For Liberty Team at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria have a lot of passion and dedicate a lot of time towards achieving a freer society. They meet on the 2nd and 4th Friday of each month and have an average attendance of about 60 people. The team in University of Ibadan was the receiving host for the First African Students For Liberty Conference, held at Trenchard Hall in University of Ibadan, with roughly 1150 student participants in attendance. In August, The University of Ibadan Libertarian team organized the first ever Women For Liberty Seminar in West Africa, which was held at the Students Union Congress Room, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta in Ibadan, Nigeria. There were about 15 female student leaders in attendance, and the theme of the seminar was “Leadership and Empowerment.” In November, 33 student leaders from 9 universities and 6 states within Nigeria gathered at Conference Centre, University of Ibadan for the African Students For Liberty Nigerian Leadership Forum. The forum shared best practices for pro-liberty student organizing. Discussions, brainstorming sessions, and lectures highlighted the need to establish a network of leaders who will work to make the country a stronghold for the pro-liberty student movement.
Estudiantes por la Libertad Guatemala
Guatemala
Es Libertad Guatemala’s mission is to empower people in Guatemala to free themselves. The most important accomplishment of Es Libertad Guatemala was successfully hosting Ruta de la Libertad Conference. Elfego Solares, Jose Coronado, Mariana Cordon, and Maria Wer planned and executed the logistics not only to host and transport 60+ EsLibertad members and speakers, but the entire three-day conference. The result was six times larger than the previous Estudiantes por la Libertad regional conference and was covered by Guatemalan media. In Guatemala, indigenous people have been ousted (by culture or by law) from education, commerce, politics, and development due to segregation. To advance free market solutions to these problems, Es Libertad Guatemala has begun the translation of classic libertarian works that are easy and universally understood to Mayan languages. This semester, they have had 11 media appearances, 8 of which were radio interviews raising awareness about the uprisings for liberty in Venezuela, Mexico, and Honduras, and promoting the Ruta de la Libertad Conference. Not only does the group get together weekly for meetings, but they also plan activities such as dinner outings. It’s moments like these that strengthen their friendships and encourage them to stay active in the fight for liberty.
Association Multi
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Student association “Multi” is a non-governmental, non-profit and non-political organization aimed at encouraging the active participation of young people and citizens. To do this, Multi initiates and conducts the processes of social change aimed at strengthening private initiatives in Bosnia & Herzegovina and improving economic freedom. Multi hosted the first organized seminar focused on these ideas in Bosnia and Herzegovina which had over 1000 participants. In 2015, the seminar grew to about 2000 participants. This is one of the largest education programs in the state in which Multi is educating hundreds of young minds. For this, “Multi” won Atlas Network’s 2014 Smith Student Outreach Award, which was presented in New York. Multi also organized a two-day event called “Night of Ideas,” which was a large debate competition on classical liberal issues. More than 400 young people were present (200 each night), with 16 teams who debated to present their arguments on four themes: youth unemployment, the problem of corruption and nepotism in Bosnia and Herzegovina, questions on privatization, and economic crisis in the country.
Young Americans for Liberty at Texas State University
United States
YAL at Texas state has hosted at least 7 major events in 2014 (Texas YAL State Convention with Ron Paul, Red Balloon Project, TCADP Speaker, Joe Cohn from FIRE, Kaluzapalooza Halloween Party, CKI Networking Social, Justin Arman on Unschooling). Of these events, the Texas YAL Convention is of note for hosting Ron Paul, bringing in attendance of 200+, and being featured in 6+ local media publications. The Red Balloon Project has 80+ participants as a tabling event, added 40+ students to SFL Network, and was SFL’s Event of the Month for September. Their Kaluzapalooza Halloween party was hosted in memory of Andrew Kaluza, had 150+ attendees from all over Texas and Louisiana, and raised $200 for ISFLC travel for Texas students. They remain the largest political organization on their campus (and one of the largest YAL chapters nationwide) with a network of over 600 students and an average meeting attendance of 25. They also remain one of the most active chapters in the Lone Star regions and lead the numbers in terms of regional conference attendance, events hosted, and recruitment. YAL at Texas State is a well-rounded group which is always contributing to SFL in notable and meaningful ways. They consistently add value to the SFL network and provide positive PR opportunities for the group and the SFL brand. Their chapter is full of dedicated and innovative student leaders who have made significant impacts on the Lone Star liberty movement as well as SFL at large.
Voting is now CLOSED. Come to the Awards Ceremony on Saturday, February 14th at 7:30 pm in the Ballroom to see who wins!