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Awards to Outstanding LeadersThe Selection Committee for Outstanding Graduating Student Leaders considers the quality and scope of leadership activities, universitywide leadership,experience, special awards, recognition and recommendations of faculty, staff and students.Jessica WatsonOutstanding Female LeaderJessica Watson is a naturallistener. Growing up, thatwas her comfort zone. Shedidn’t like the limelight.She surprised herself when,as a UF freshman, she beganto show unexpected signs ofleadership. UF’s FreshmanPreview gave her the firsthint. To excel, she realizedshe would need to challenge herself.Her tendency to remain silent soon gave way to herdesire to contribute to campus life. For the past fouryears, Ms. Watson has been anything but the shyschoolgirl she was before enrolling at UF. She quicklybecame a First-Year Florida peer leader, director ofpublic relations and social media for UF’s DigitalWorlds Institute’s TEDxUF — where part of her jobwas managing a 15-person street team — and directorof the 34-member Band Committee for the ReitzStudent Union. Ms. Watson’s leadership duties greweven more during her junior year when she agreed tobe president of the Reitz Union Board Entertainment,a job that required the public relations major tooversee 170 people and more than 200 events.Four years after deciding she would force herself to beoutgoing, Ms. Watson says her role interacting withso many people has been one of her most rewardingUF experiences. Her dedication has helped studentsmake connections with people they might not haveotherwise met.Joshua MinchinOutstanding Male LeaderJoshua Minchin oftenfinds himself asking,“How can I serve othersbetter?” That desire is coreto his character. He callsit being a “servant leader.”It is a code Mr. Minchinapplies to all his leadershipopportunities.As a Sunday school teacher for four- and five-year-oldsand a mentor for elementary schoolchildren in theUniversity of Florida’s After School Gators program,he learned the value of being a solid role model andthoughtful leader. It is a practice that serves him wellwith adults, too. As chancellor of UF’s Student HonorCode Administration and a member of the StudentConduct and Conflict Resolution Committee,Mr. Minchin sometimes sat on one side of the tableas a committee member and on the opposite sideas an accused student’s adviser. It taught him thatregardless of circumstances, everyone deserves to betreated with respect and dignity.Mr. Minchin, who majored in both public relationsand political science, also was a Florida Cicerone,director of the Lincoln Douglas Debate for FloridaBlue Key’s speaker’s bureau tournament, member ofthe university’s Bateman team for public relations,and director of finances for Campus Diplomats. Heand his Bateman teammates organized a successfulGuinness World Records-setting bubble wrappopping party (beating the previous record by 33participants). In fall 2013, Mr. Minchin was namedmost outstanding Cicerone because of his efforts toalways do his best to represent UF well.2014 SPRINGCommencement26