Stanford’s Alumni Association named Ava Brown ’26 and Georgia Walker-Keleher ’26 the recipients of the J.E. Wallace Sterling Award and the Outstanding Achievement award, respectively, in a May 28 announcement.
The J.E. Wallace Sterling award recognizes a senior whose leadership and volunteering has made the largest impact on the Stanford community, according to the Stanford Report. Brown served as the 2025-26 Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) president, is a member of the Stanford equestrian team and a part of the Xi Beta Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.
Brown is also the president of Ideas out Loud (IOL), a student-run team that organizes TEDxStanford. As president, she mentors student speakers and leads a team of directors to put on the event annually. According to its website, the group “shar[es] intellectual discussions, empowering stories, and fresh ideas to the Stanford community.”
Brown is also the founder of Black Voices, a speaker series that highlights members of the Black community on campus. A collaboration between IOL and the Stanford Storytelling project, Black Voices features eight student speakers each year.
“Ava’s leadership is rooted in service. She has consistently volunteered her time to create spaces that elevate others and strengthen community and model stewardship,” a nominator wrote to the Stanford Report. “Her impact on student life has been both measurable and lasting.”
The Outstanding Achievement Award recipient “demonstrates the strong potential for continued service to the university and the alumni community,” according to The Stanford Report. Walker-Keleher is a member of On Call Cafe’s Community & Culture team and served as a peer facilitator in the Office for Inclusion, Belonging and Intergroup Communication.
Walker-Keleher worked with the Stanford Social Media Lab to co-lead a research project on smartphone use among college students. With Caroline Chen ’26 M.S. ’26, Angela Lee Ph.D. ’24 and Emma Charity ’25, Walker-Keleher investigated how the use of “Light Phones” — mobile phones equipped only with basic call and text features — affected students’ well-being, stress and time management.
Walker-Keleher co-founded the Do Good Now Career Fair, a social impact career fair that drew over 45 organizations and 279 student attendees. The fair was Walker-Keleher’s human rights capstone project, but she hopes that the event and its message become institutionalized on campus.
“We are aiming to show students that they can do things that are good for the world and have it be mainstream,” Walker-Keleher told The Daily at the event.