Last week, Mississippi State University began seeking nominations for the sixth annual Spirit of State Awards.  The Spirit of State Award is the most prestigious student award offered at MSU. Its purpose is to recognize students who have made outstanding contributions to MSU and have positively impacted student life.  
The award was created in 2005 by Bill Kibler, Vice President for Student Affairs, as a way to honor students who were passionate about MSU and were standing out amongst the crowd of 18,000. 
“I started this awards program in my second year here at State,” he said. “I was impressed by the many students I met who were not necessarily in traditional leadership roles but were making a clear impact on the campus.” 
From its foundation, the program has been seeking students who represent the spirit of the university through their leadership roles, involvement, service to the community, attitude and initiative to make a difference on campus.
The Spirit of State award differs from other student awards in its design to recognize students of all levels equally. The award is open to MSU students in all disciplines and class ranks from freshmen to graduate students.
 ”We also work hard to seek those students who are making a difference outside the normal places that we look.  We want students who are making a difference in their organizations, or their classroom, or their laboratory or among their peers,” Kibler said.
Nathan Johnson, 2010 winner and senior biological engineering major, said he received the award because he organized the exam week rave in the library last year. 
“I created a Facebook group and talked to everybody and communicated with the dean and library staff,” Johnson said.
He said, to him, the Spirit of State is throwing the largest, loudest and wildest library rave in the entire state.
Johnson was nominated by Nancy McCarley, former director of MSU Shackouls Honors College, and Frances Coleman, dean of libraries. He said he was surprised to be nominated because he was not close to McCarley or Coleman before the rave and did not even know about the Spirit of State Award.
“It feels good when you see people like professors and deans recognize your hard work and show some investment in your academic career. When there are 18,000 or 19,000 other students, it feels pretty good,” he said.
Jenna Owen, junior industrial and systems engineering major with minors in mathematics and leadership, received the Spirit of State Award as a freshman in 2009.
She was a distinguished scholar, president of the engineering council, and was involved in the Student Association and the Shackouls Honors College, among other accomplishments.
She said her passion for MSU was a result of the personal attention and care she received from professors and others on campus from the start.
“I could tell that MSU really wanted to help every single one of their students succeed,” Owen said. “Mississippi State is unique in the fact that here, you are more than a number.”
The application process is simple and can be carried out in one of two ways: students may either be nominated by another member of the university, staff or a student or may apply directly. The application and nomination forms can be found online and ask for specific examples of campus involvement, service, honors and recognition to show how the student has positively affected the quality of life at MSU.
Kibler said each year, as many as 100 applications are received and approximately 20 are chosen by a selection committee comprised of MSU staff and former recipients.
He said this ensures the students chosen represent the very best at MSU.
Nominations and application forms should be submitted online by Feb. 18.