Journalism major Jared Cooper won the award for best Sun Devil Spirit. The Pitchfork Awards celebrates the achievements of students, organizations and other ASU initiatives Thursday at Orpheum Theater in downtown Phoenix. Click on the photo to view a full slideshow. (Photo by Perla Farias)The ASU community celebrated the achievements of individual students, student organizations and other University initiatives Thursday at the Pitchfork Awards at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Phoenix.
The awards kicked off with an on-stage Sparky appearance and was hosted by communication studies graduate Jason Striker and mechanical engineering freshman Haley Tibbs.
The first winner of the night was journalism sophomore Jared Cooper with the Sun Devil Spirit Award.
Other winners included the Health and Counseling Student Action Committee with the Outstanding Well Devil Project Award, Camp Sparky for being the Best Educational Program, Devils In Disguise for being the Best Recurring Program and ASU Global Brigades for being the Most Promising New Student Organization.
There were 487 nominations submitted to the Pitchfork Awards' committee.
Out of those nominations, 95 students, student organizations and student led initiatives were chosen as the finalists for the 22 award categories.
ASU Men’s Basketball Coach Herb Sendek presented the Outstanding NCAA Student Athlete award to Shelby Houlihan for cross-country and Will Sutton for football.
“This is the most memorable award I’ve won so far,” Sutton said. “I say so far, because I’ve got one more year.”
The Outstanding Sports Club award went to the Hip Hop Coalition – a sports club created by alumna Leslie Scott in 1996.
Acapella group Priority Male did a performed during the Pitchfork Awards. They were nominated for best live performance for the night.(Photo by Perla Farias)
Hip Hop Coalition President Laurel Mooney, a supply chain management and marketing senior, said the sports club was created to teach students about hip-hop culture and turn it into a positive experience.
Part of the club’s funding goes to bringing in different choreographers each week, so that members can try different styles of hip-hop, she said. This year, students in the club have also had the chance to choreograph dances, Mooney say.
She said the club has three types of memberships which include a level one and two performing group, but that the club is open to anyone, regardless of experience.
“This is for people who have never danced before and want to learn and for those who have danced in numerous hip-hop groups and want to keep learning,” Mooney said.
The Hip Hop Coalition also received the most audience votes for Best Live Performance after performing against Priority Male, ASU Aashiyana and the Pitchforks.
Dance graduate Sarah “Saza” Dimmick was nominated for Outstanding Teaching Award and is a Hip Hop I and II instructor at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.
Dimmick began dancing at age 12 after being a competitive gymnast and graduated in 2004 from ASU with a bachelor's of fine arts in dance.
She became an adjunct professor in 2005 and returned in the Fall 2012 semester as a masters student and student teacher.
“Most of the time (the students) don’t expect me to be the teacher,” Dimmick said. “The first class I taught at ASU, I was only 25 years old. I looked like a baby.”
She said although she can see herself teaching dance full time at a university in the future, the reason she went back to school is because she wanted to immerse herself in the program and be able to take her artistry to the next level.
Besides teaching at ASU, Dimmick is a part of The Be Kind People Project, which travels to schools throughout the country to promote anti-bullying and respect for teachers.
“Teaching can be really tough,” she said. “We go to schools in really bad parts of the city, low-performing schools, and encourage teachers to keep doing what they’re doing.”
Dimmick said as a professional dancer teaching is always going to be part of the job, whether it is in a studio or as part of a dance company.
“When I did my undergrad … a professor saw something in me, in teaching, that I didn’t know was there,” she said. “Teaching is a huge part of who I am and what I do.”
A slideshow of the event can be viewed here.
Reach the reporter at ppineda@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @paulinapineda22
