Top 100 Women Scholarship winner leads with purpose, from McDaniel to Annapolis

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The Daily Record and Towson University provide a $3,000 scholarship annually to a young woman who is currently attending a Maryland college or university who best mirrors the attributes of Maryland’s Top 100 Women. Circle of Excellence honorees vote for each year’s scholarship winner. 

This year’s winner of the $3,000 scholarship is Nicki James of McDaniel College.

When Nicki James arrived at McDaniel College four years ago, she knew she wanted to help people. She just had not figured out how yet. A social work major and political science minor graduating in spring 2026 with a 3.97 GPA and a Dorsey Scholar distinction, James has spent her time at McDaniel doing exactly that — and then some.

James found her footing quickly. She serves as Chief of Staff and Treasurer for the Student Government Association and President of the Honors Program. She is also a member of the President’s Advisory Council for Students, a selective group that works directly with senior institutional leadership to strengthen the student experience.

One of her proudest accomplishments grew out of the council. When a trustee offered the group a grant to improve campus vibrancy, James ran with it, leading a student-driven effort to create an outdoor activity lending library where students can borrow equipment to use on shared campus spaces. Making it happen took real collaboration — securing space, identifying partners and building out logistics — all within a single semester. James credited Andrea Phillips in the President’s Office with helping her navigate the institution and connect with the right people to get the project off the ground. She called it one of the most rewarding things she has done at McDaniel because it was entirely student-driven.

“From her first semester at McDaniel, Nicki demonstrated a rare level of initiative and civic responsibility among undergraduate students,” McDaniel College President Julia Jasken wrote in a letter of support. “She embodies the spirit of Maryland’s Top 100 Women through her commitment to service, advocacy, and mentorship, consistently translating knowledge into action for the public good. Nicki James represents the very best of McDaniel College and of the next generation of women leaders in Maryland.”

Beyond McDaniel, James brings the same energy to her work in public service. As an Undergraduate Social Work Fellow in the Maryland General Assembly in the office of Senator Mary Washington, she is on the front lines of constituent services — helping residents navigate complex state systems, connecting them to resources for housing, food and other public assistance they did not know existed, and resolving issues people have been dealing with for weeks or months. During an interview, her future supervisor asked her what makes a good day in the office. She has been thinking about that question ever since, she said, because she knows the answer when she feels it. A good day is when she has connected with the people around her, done meaningful work and actually made someone’s situation a little better.

Her commitment to showing up for people started early. As a Direct Support Professional and Youth Job Coach with The Arc of Carroll County, she worked with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, supporting skill development, independence and employment readiness. Her time there, she said, grounds her current work in policy. She believes that to do the most good for the most people, policy and advocacy are the most powerful tools available — but that effective advocacy requires real experience with the communities being served.

Her curiosity runs just as wide as her service. James teamed up with her professor, mentor and advisor, Dr. Jim Kunz, on student-faculty research examining historical memory and racial justice in public commemoration. The project looked at the potential renaming of a Westminster street honoring a Confederate colonel who occupied the town during the Civil War. Growing up in Westminster with Gettysburg just down the road, she had always heard stories about the area’s connection to that history, but the research made it personal in a way it never had been before. She began to understand the lasting impact that decisions about public commemoration have on a community’s collective memory and who gets to be part of it. She presented policy recommendations to local leaders and at national conferences.

She has carried that willingness into other spaces too, addressing audiences at the Carroll County Women’s Conference and alongside the Equal Justice Initiative’s Maryland Lynching Memorial Project — experiences she described as reminders that advocacy takes many forms and that being willing to speak up is part of the work.

And still, there is more. James has served as a Peer Mentor, Orientation Leader, Study Abroad Ambassador, campus tour guide and Honor and Conduct Board member. Asked how she manages to balance it all, she credited advice from her mother: “You can’t do it all, and sometimes you have to drop a ball. The real skill is learning which balls are okay to drop.”

The people who know James best say her impact goes beyond what any list of roles can capture. Dr. Phillip Sullivan, dean of students at McDaniel and James’ nominator, described her as possessing a combination of intellectual rigor, emotional intelligence and leadership maturity that is uncommon at the undergraduate level. He noted her ability to pair strong analytical thinking with empathy, allowing her to navigate complex challenges while keeping the focus on people and community outcomes. He called her highly organized, dependable and able to work effectively across diverse groups, earning trust from peers, faculty and community partners. “Most notably, Nicki leads with purpose,” Sullivan wrote in his nomination. “She approaches leadership as responsibility rather than recognition.”

As for what is next, James can hardly contain her excitement. This fall she will move to Philadelphia to pursue her Master of Social Work at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice, where she will complete her field practicum with the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity. A natural next step, she said — taking everything she learned at McDaniel and in the Maryland General Assembly and applying it in a new community. Her goal is to create change through policy and systems, and she is ready to get started.

Her advice to a first-year student who wants to make a difference but does not know where to start? “Start small,” she said. “The leadership opportunities and meaningful connections will follow naturally the longer you stay involved and show up as someone who is reliable, genuine, and kind. You don’t have to have it all figured out on day one. You just have to start.”