The Center for Excellence in Student Leadership (XCEL) will host the annual XCELsior Awards Thursday to recognize outstanding achievement and leadership by groups and individuals on campus.

The awards ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Anderson Center Chamber Hall. The event will recognize fraternities, sororities and Student Association-chartered groups that excel in a variety of categories.

Awards will be given in categories such as outstanding program, SA program of the semester, fundraising effort of the year, student organization of the year and student organization leader of the year. Recipients will receive plaques while runners-up will receive trophies in the shape of shooting stars.

In addition to the awards ceremony, the night’s events include performances by student groups, such as the International Flag Dancers and the Binghamton Crosbys, and a dessert reception.

Anyone could have nominated a group or individual by submitting a 300- to 1,000-word essay explaining why the award is deserved. The deadline was March 26.

Several XCEL subcommittees, which are made up of students and faculty, determine which groups will win the awards based on the essays.

“If someone writes a strong essay on behalf of their organization and they cover all the criteria, that’s a lot stronger of a nomination than if an organization nominated itself and had 10 different people submit a paragraph,” said Grace Fama, coordinator for leadership development and special programs in XCEL.

According to Fama, this is the second year that recipient selection is under a consensus-based deliberation process, instead of holding a vote.???

She added that under the previous system there would often be ties, resulting in two people receiving the same award.

“That was just too much,” Fama said. “Last year we wanted to make it more special, so we really tried to change the way we select awards.”

Subcommittees are also allowed to choose three honorable mentions.

XCEL is a University-run office dedicated to promoting and recognizing the leadership skills of students at Binghamton University.

“At XCEL we try to promote and recognize leadership,” said Robyn Anderson, a junior double majoring in political science and Arabic and an undergraduate intern at XCEL. “We have public speaking labs where we evaluate [students]. They develop leadership skills like speaking, time management and conflict resolution.”