Nominated by Margaret Goralski, chair and professor of entrepreneurship & strategy, Quadri was celebrated for her involvement with both the Quinnipiac and the PRME communities.

“Sana Quadri has demonstrated outstanding leadership through her active engagement not only in PRME-focused initiatives but also in creating PRME-focused initiatives as an undergraduate student at Quinnipiac,” said Goralski.

Goralski serves on the PRME NA Steering Committee, an initiative of the United Nations, as the Global Working Group Liaison. The PRME NA Steering Committee oversees the governance of signatory universities in the United States and Canada.

“The Excellence Award for Student Leadership is a prestigious award because it exemplifies the accomplishments of Sana Quadri within the over 150 higher education and business school signatories across the United States and Canada,” said Goralski. “When Sana’s accomplishments were read to the attendees of the PRME NA biennial meeting at Loyola Marymount University, it granted her a place of distinction with the students who have received this award previously and will receive the award in the future.”

One of the many achievements that Quadri was recognized for was her extensive research portfolio.

“In 2024, Quadri presented a paper titled ‘Connecting Emotional Intelligence to Artificial Intelligence’ at a competitive session of the Academy of International Business U.S. Northeast Chapter in Boston. She sought to understand the relationship between emotional intelligence and artificial intelligence using data collected in the United States and China,” said Goralski.

Quadri also published three other papers during her undergraduate years, including “Automating Curriculum Intelligence: Scalable Extraction and Categorization of University Courses Using GenAI,” “Virtual, Augmented, and Extended Reality in Higher Education: Trends, Applications, Impacts,” and “Preparing the XR Workforce: Curriculum Patterns of Extended Reality in Higher Education,” with the mentorship of several professors, including Luis SaCouto, Tan Gürpinar, Shizhen Jia and Guido Lang, as well as collaborating with a fellow student, Amelia McKenna.

Outside of her publications, Quadri served as the president of the International Business Society at Quinnipiac. During her time in the position, she helped enhance the connection between Quinnipiac and PRME NA.

“In 2026, Quadri, along with a Quinnipiac student colleague, Margaret Gachau, organized a very successful PRME NA signatory event with members of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) office in New York,” said Goralski. “The event took place at the end of day one of the Global Asset Management Education (GAME) Forum, run by Quinnipiac at the Marriott Marquis in New York, for approximately 1500 students. The event at UNGC brought together students from across the PRME NA Signatory network for conversation, along with industry leaders who agreed to engage in a detailed discussion of industry trends, opportunities and possibilities for soon-to-be graduating students.”

The connection that Quadri curated with the global organization extended far beyond the GAME Forum. Quadri continued to provide opportunities for her peers to get involved with PRME.

“Quadri submitted a grant proposal for International Business Society members to travel to New York to meet with UNGC members, learn more about the opportunities available to them given Quinnipiac’s PRME NA Signatory status and take a tour of the UNGC office. The proposal was accepted, and Quadri was able to fund approximately 20 students to attend the UNGC meeting and the tour.”

For Quadri, her work within the International Business Society is one of the most rewarding leadership roles she has held at Quinnipiac.

“I've made an impact at PRME by promoting the organization to more students. At the GAME Forum side event, we invited students from PRME NA signatory network,” said Quadri. “For many of them, this was their first time being introduced to PRME. To continue Quinnipiac's connection with PRME, I wanted to bring more students through the International Business Society, where students learned about ways to get involved with PRME. Through long time at Quinnipiac, I feel that I made the most impact because of my involvement with international business.”

Quadri also founded a chapter of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) at Quinnipiac with her peer Jannat Butt ‘ 25, a student organization focused on educating students about immigrants and refugees.

Quadri was able to intersect her leadership roles to have a direct impact on the local community.

“As president of the Quinnipiac International Business Society, Quadri organized and oversaw the highly successful 2025 International Business Society Annual Dinner, a fundraiser for the IRIS of New Haven,” sad Goralski.

While Quadri’s impressive leadership and drive earned her the recognition, she is grateful for the support she has received at Quinnipiac.

“The professors at Quinnipiac have been incredibly supportive of my ambitions,” she said. “Sometimes I would reach out to them for opportunities, like staying involved with PRME. Other times they would contact me with a new opportunity for me to take part in. I'm glad that they saw something in me to invite me to take part in research projects or lead new organizations. And I'm also glad they were welcoming and open enough to collaborate with me on new things.”

Quadri’s interest in Quinnipiac began after she took part in the Entrepreneurship Academy pre-college summer program.

“I felt connected with Quinnipiac since then, and my parents encouraged me to keep them in mind while choosing schools,” she said.

Now entering her graduate year at the university, Quadri has so many positive memories of her undergraduate experience.

“What I love most about Quinnipiac is how easy it is to connect with others. The small class sizes make it easy to get to know your classmates,” she said. “You become close with people in the same major as you. The more events and meetings I attended, the more I found people that shared my interests, experiences and goals.“