Excellence in Community Engagement

The UMass Lowell (UML) Award for Excellence in Community Engagement recognizes faculty accomplishments that demonstrate community collaboration, institutional impact and deeply engaged, high-quality learning.

Eligibility

• The nominee must be a full-time faculty member at UMass Lowell and currently in a tenure, teaching, or clinical-track position. Self-nominations are welcome.
• Nominations should clearly demonstrate how the individual has led an effort, initiative, or project to promote community engagement in areas including but not limited to:
  • volunteerism
  • community-based learning or research, outreach, partnerships,
  • and/or curricular engagement.

Criteria for Award

• Establishes and/or sustains collaborative community initiatives benefitting communities and UMass Lowell and supporting the exchange of knowledge, resources, or skills
• Supports community-defined objectives through contributing professional expertise for workshops, forums, trainings, meetings, and/or presentations from members of the community
• Works reciprocally with a community partner to expand equitable access to educational opportunities and/or lifelong learning for UMass Lowell students and members of the community
• Enriches the lives of and prepares a diverse body of educated and engaged citizens

Application Process

Any full-time faculty member may nominate a colleague or themselves for this award. The deadline for applications is March 25, 2024. All submissions must be made through InfoReady. The submission package must include in a single PDF document:

• the applicant’s current curriculum vitae;
• a short statement (500-1,000 words) describing the applicant’s community engagement philosophy when working with students, the impact on students, and how the applicant meets the award criteria;
• three letters of support that contain specific examples of the applicant’s activities that are aligned with the review criteria:
  • a letter from the nominator or, in the case of a self-nomination, a letter from a colleague familiar with the nominee’s community engagement contributions
  • two letters from students – the letters can be from current student(s) or former student(s) who graduated from UML within the past five years
  • Note: A single individual may write no more than one support letter for each award category.

The Faculty Excellence Committee will meet to review the nominations and make a recommendation to the Provost or designee.

Award Winners

The winner of this award will be announced in April 2024. The winner will be invited to present a lightning talk on their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives at the Fall 2024 Faculty Symposium. The winner will also receive a $1,000 award.

For questions, please email: Faculty_Success@uml.edu.