About 250 people gathered in the Marvin Center Thursday night for the Student Activities Center annual Excellence Awards ceremony honoring student leaders and organizers.

A committee of eight people with representatives from various campus offices voted to award students and administrators who have positively impacted the GW community.

Awards were given out in nine categories, including the Baer Award for Individual Excellence, the Learning Through Action Award, the Pyramid Award for Registered Student Organizations and Student Organization Adviser of the Year Award.

Students Joshua Schimmerling, Will Alexander, Eric Daleo, Dan Moss and Erica Fischer received the Baer Award.

Schimmerling, an organizer of the event, said the Baer Award is given to those who make, “a contribution to GW is some way or another … above and beyond the call of duty for GW.”

As a recipient of the award, Schimmerling said, “All my hard work that I put in for four years has finally paid off … this is the big thank you at the end.”

Judah Ferst and Elliot Schottland were the recipients of the Learning Through Action Award, Ferst for his work with Buzzing for Change, a cancer awareness group, and Schottland for his dedication to the University’s outdoor program, GW TRAILS.

This was the first year students could receive the Learning Through Action Award, said Tim Miller, associate director of the Student Activities Center. The award was invented specifically for students like Ferst and Schottland, Miller added.

The Class Council and the Black Student Association won the Pyramid Award for Registered Student Organizations.

Miller said the award is given to the “top student associations.”

The Islamic Alliance for Justice won the Walter G. Bryte Jr. Award for student groups.

Debra Berger won the Student Organization Adviser of the Year Award, nominated by the Program Board.

Miller said he was pleased with the outcome of the ceremony this year.

“This was really the best one that I’ve seen … both in the number of nominations and the people who received them,” Miller said.