Kiran Bhardwaj, a doctoral student in philosophy, has received the 2015 Boka W. Hadzija Award for Distinguished University Service by a Graduate or Professional Student.
The Boka W. Hadzija Award recognizes a graduate or professional student with outstanding character, scholarship, leadership and service to the university. Bhardwaj and other outstanding award recipients were recognized at the Chancellor’s Awards Ceremony on April 22. The Graduate School recognized Bhardwaj at the 17th Annual Graduate Student Recognition Celebration, held April 9.
Bhardwaj is a member of the Royster Society of Fellows, The Graduate School’s select interdisciplinary fellowship program. She served in the Graduate and Professional Student Federation (GPSF) from 2010 to 2014, first as a departmental senator, then vice president for external affairs, and finally as president. During her year as president, the GPSF initiated an emergency fund that provides financial grants for students with one-time emergency expenses and developed awards to recognize graduate students for excellence in mentorship.
She has served on the University’s Honor Court since 2010, and on the Honor System Task Force since 2011.
Beyond the University community, Bhardwaj coached students at East Chapel Hill High School to two High School Ethics Bowl regional championships (2011 and 2012). She is also a professional musician and has performed with the Durham Symphony, the UNC Symphony Orchestra, the Triangle Youth Ballet and the North Carolina Master Chorale.
She has published three papers in ethics and spoke in a colloquium at the American Philosophical Association’s Pacific Division meeting in April 2015.
A nomination letter for Bhardwaj said the following: “Kiran has combined her academic work, her service to young people and her contributions to the University community into an extraordinary whole, each component enriching the others.”
Boka W. Hadzija was an award-winning professor in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy; she established the award in 2000 in honor of her students. Hadzija, who died in 2013, is remembered by students and faculty for her strong mentorship, her generous support of students and her outstanding leadership.
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Last spring, Kiran Bhardwaj, then president of the Graduate and Professional Student Federation, talked with Graduate Dean Steve Matson about everything from the role of mentorship to the future of graduate education.
[vimeo id=”95432286″ width=”600″ height=”350″ autoplay=”no” api_params=””]Video by Leon Godwin and Jon Kasbe
By Deb Saine, The Graduate School