The Student Activities Center hosted the 22nd annual Excellence Awards Thursday night to recognize individuals, student organizations and University programs whose efforts have enhanced the quality of campus life at GW.

Fifteen student organizations won awards in categories ranging from excellence in diversity, community service and significant contributions to the GW community. Other categories included graduate campus life, learning through action and outstanding achievement.

The Pyramid Awards, the Student Activities Center’s top recognition, were given to the Asian Student Alliance, Green GW and Student Movement for Real Change.

Global Languages was the only student organization to be nominated for and win two awards, The Walter G. Bryte Jr. Award and Excellence in Diversity.

GW Balance, a ballet group, received the Spotlight of the Year Award. The Sons of Pitch, a male a cappella organization, received the Student’s Choice for Performance Group of the Year award.

“We are creating a wave of change at GW with these exceptional student organizations bringing people together one person at a time,” said Tim Miller, executive director of SAC, which oversees student life on campus. “Something does happen here.”

Twelve individual students won awards in the categories of commitment to the campus community and scholarship, enthusiasm in intramural sports and leadership development.

Twenty-three students were nominated for the Baer Award for Individual Excellence, and 31 students were nominated for the Joint Committee of Faculty and Student Scholarship for Leadership Development Award. The five winners of the JCFS scholarship each received a $3,000 award.

Sophomore Maggie Desmond was the only student to win both awards for which she was nominated, the Baer Award for Individual Excellence and the JCFS Leadership Development Award.

She said she was first introduced to the Excellence Awards when she attended as a member of Class Council last year. She applied for the JCFS Scholarship this spring at a friend’s urging. Desmond is also a member of Green GW, which she said she had not expected to win an award.

“I was completely shocked,” she wrote in an e-mail. “At our Green GW meeting Wednesday night I even told the group that we could go to the Excellence Awards together, but it wouldn’t be a big deal if they couldn’t make it because it was pretty unlikely that we would win.”