[Al Skierkiewicz]

Cassie,
Last year was crazy enough to be considered a fluke as to methods used. This question is better asked in a year or two.
We felt that this was a sufficiently important award to warrant mentor decisions in the process. We wanted to give our nominees the best possible exposure to the process and felt they were/are extremely deserving of the award. I am happy to say that several of the nominees are students I have met over the past few years and everyone of them is deserving of recognition.