In 2010 the staff of Campus Pride decided that another level of recognition should be added to the National Voice & Action Leadership Award. There were too many amazing student leaders creating positive change on their respective campuses to only give recognition in the final recipients of the award. The Top 10 Leaders in Action recognition was created to highlight these exceptional students, and we are thrilled to be highlighting ten more outstanding leaders in 2013.

Just before the New Year, Campus Pride completed its review and selected the Top 10 Leaders in Action. These ten students will be forwarded on to the final review process for the National Voice & Action Leadership Award.

We are honored to introduce you to the Top 10 Leaders in Action (listed in alphabetical order): Annie Pigaga, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Cat Miller, University of Tennessee at Knoxville; Connor Norton, Old Dominion University; Jeffrey Stephen Wan You Sew, Pratt Institute; Kari Jo Freudigmann, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater; Katherine Barnes, St. Olaf College; Mark Labadorf, Tulane University; Mark Rivera, William Paterson University; Rebecca Kern, La Sierra University; and Sara Beth Brooks, Sacramento City College.

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

Name: Annie Pigaga
College: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Age: 21
Social Privilege Definition: I think of social privilege as having been born with a status that grants you certain rights and opportunities. These statuses could be, but are not limited to, gender, sex, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. In different cultures, these statuses are not always the same.

Name: Cat Miller
College: University of Tennessee at Knoxville
Age: 22
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege is a project of bigotry and misunderstanding. Because of the way our world works, some groups are inadvertently and sometimes purposefully, however unfortunately, seen as less than. People don’t like what is different. Privilege is placed on the cis-White-heterosexual-male. Everyone else must work harder to prove themselves.

Name: Connor Norton
College: Old Dominion University
Age: 19
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege is to be born into a community designed class that dictates you are superior or different from other individuals. It is a societal concept that is accepted by the general populace that states “there are others whom are, by birth, given more rights that others”.

Name: Jeffrey Stephen Wan You Sew
College: Pratt Institute
Age: 20
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege means that you fit in the society that you live in and that you comply with its rules, laws, and standards. It also entails all identities such as race, age, gender, religion, class, sexual identity, national origin, etc.

Name: Kari Jo Freudigmann
College: University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Age: 22
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege is how a person’s cards are dealt. My main social privileges are that I am white and cisgender. They are identities of mine that I do not choose and yet they allow me to get ahead in life.

Name: Katherine Barnes
College: St. Olaf College
Age: 21
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege is the advantage institutionally engrained into society limited to certain groups based upon the society construction of culture, gender, race, religion, and other determinate factors.

Name: Mark Labadorf
College: Tulane University
Age: 20
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege refers to people’s access to resources and leads to stratification throughout all levels of society. It is based on socially constructed views of superiority that have been imbedded in society’s past. People who have such privilege are able to advance to society’s higher statuses with much more ease.

Name: Mark Rivera
College: William Paterson University
Age: 21
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege in my opinion is the advantage that an individual has on the basis that they fit the social norms or within the construction of social behavior or identity that has been deemed acceptable by those in power who maintain the hierarchy.

Name: Rebecca Kern
College: La Sierra University
Age: 24
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege is having a knowledge of freedom and ability to live life to your own full potential. Countries like Uganda or Malawi exist under laws that have legally condemned the LGBT community and pushed them to death. In America, as much change as we see we need to make, we must first understand and respect that we have the freedom to think and do. We have access to social communities–with that comes great responsibility.

Name: Sara Beth Brooks
College: Sacramento City College
Age: 27
Social Privilege Definition: Social privilege is an unspoken social system that values people differently and dicates how resources are distributed. Privilege grants access to levers of society’s power: education, healthcare, shelter. One visible privilege is skin color though privilege can also come from unequal distribution of wealth, or being able-bodied, straight, or cisgender.