UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Each day, faculty across Penn State’s campuses work to improve programs and help students become more engaged with their college experience.
Nominations are now open for five awards that recognize exemplary faculty who are making a difference at Penn State.
The President’s Award for Engagement with Students rewards one faculty member who has gone above and beyond for their students and takes a special interest in their engagement. This could be through making themselves more available to students, interacting with them outside of the classroom, connecting them to opportunities or helping to build their confidence as contributors to society.
The $5,000 award directs $3,000 to the recipient and $2,000 to the faculty member’s department; the award can be used to extend and enhance their engagement work.
Any tenured or tenure-track faculty member may be nominated here. The deadline is Dec. 10.
The Undergraduate Program Leadership Award recognizes one faculty member who demonstrates exemplary leadership benefiting an undergraduate degree program and provides for a cash award of $1,000.
Examples of leadership activities can include curriculum enhancement within a program, mentoring of colleagues, increasing a program’s visibility, among others. Any full-time faculty within a degree-granting unit is eligible for the award, as long as they are not currently serving as an assistant or associate dean or as the head or chair of an academic department, school or division.
Nominating forms can be found here. The deadline is Dec. 10. Both the President’s Award for Engagement and the Undergraduate Program Leadership Award are administered through Undergraduate Education.
Three other awards are available through Outreach and Online Engagement benefiting engaged scholarship. All three have nominating deadlines of Dec. 21.
The Emerging Faculty Outreach Award is given to faculty members who are early on in their tenure track, or to a nontenure track faculty member. Eligible faculty members will have completed work that has potential to advance engaged scholarship through teaching, research or service. The honor features a $1,000 award.
Visit this form to nominate a faculty member.
The Faculty Outreach Awards is accepting nominations for full-time faculty members, including librarians, who make significant contributions to engaged scholarship through outreach. Awards are for $1,000 and also have a Dec. 21 deadline. Nominating forms can be found here.
Finally, the Community Engagement and Scholarship Award recognizes an excellent engaged scholarship project or initiative. The winner, in addition to receiving a $1,000 stipend, will also be submitted as the University’s nominee to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Outreach Scholarship Award. Click here for nominating awards.