The chairman of the Mercator Award Committee, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Kühnen, announced on the 26th of November the recipients of the award for 2009. The Mercator Award for the 2nd year undergraduate student resident in Mercator College goes to Tariq Tobias Omarshah. The Mercator Award 2009 for the 3rd year undergraduate student goes to Suna Turhan.

Both students were very emotional in their reactions to the news. Tariq mentioned: "I am greatly humbled to receive this years Mercator Award. There are so many people who do so much for this community. Thank you to all of you for your inspiration. This award is a tribute to our joint efforts. I am also greatly thankful to the Mercator Stiftung for their continual support of Mercator and all who work to make Jacobs what it is: unique and innovative." Suna added: "Wow, this award is a great honor for me and I would like to thank my college. I never expected that you would get an award for commitment that you love to do anyways and it is a great feeling to know that, with or without the award, I am rich because of all the friendships and experiences I could gain throughout my studies in this great college. Although I went through a crisis in my 1st semester and wanted to leave university, I am glad that I have not done so. I love Mercator and I always will!"

“My heartfelt congratulations go to Tariq and Suna for this well deserved recognition of their remarkable extracurricular social commitment. I also want to thank the Mercator Foundation for giving our “Mercatorians” such an extra motivation to take up responsibility within our campus community and beyond,” Jacobs University President Joachim Treusch commented on this year’s Mercator Award.

The event was also highly publicized on the Jacobs University website. Here you can find the article. The German version is attached.

In our picture galery you can browse through the pictures of the Mercator Day and of the Award Ceremony itself.

Please follow this link to learn more about the eligibility criteria.

The Award Ceremony was enhanced by three artistic performances:

1. Marja Seidel and Ognyan Seizov - Tom Waits, “Temptation”

2. Taylor Hartrick, Suna Turhan, Ebru Uzun - Bruce Cockburn, “All The Diamonds”

3. Veneta Gerganova and Ognyan Seizov - “Oriental Dance” with Live Accompaniment

The complete program of the Award Ceremony is attached.

Attachments:

Mercator Award (Deutsch)	[The German version of the Jacobs University website article ]	70 Kb
Mercator Day 2009 Awards Ceremony	[The program of the ceremony]	25 Kb