Building Community Award
We invite you to nominate a member of our engineering community for a 2025 College of Engineering "Building Community" Award.
The purpose of this award is to recognize individuals for their contributions towards building a supportive and engaged engineering community both within and outside of the university, especially those that go above and beyond their scholarly work.
We acknowledge the contributions of two community members annually, one at the faculty/staff level and one at the undergraduate/graduate student or postdoc level. All faculty, staff and students in the College of Engineering community are eligible.
Submission materials needed:
- One nominating letter of no more than two pages from within the university, briefly summarizing the merit of the nomination. Self nominations are allowed. In the nomination letter, please detail the nominee's:
- Commitment to building community and engagement at the undergraduate, graduate, and/or faculty levels within the college and/or a department;
- Contributions to building community and engagement at the broader campus level;
- Commitment to building community outside of the University;
- Description of the alignment of community and engagement work within scope of their scholarly work versus as additional service or volunteer work.
- Up to two additional supporting letters of no more than one page each. Supporting letters may be from colleagues within and outside of the university.
The nomination and supporting materials should be submitted as a single PDF through the UMass Info Ready Platform here.
Nomination deadline is Monday, March 24th, 2025. You may save drafts prior to the final submission.
Recipients will be acknowledged at the annual College Community Celebration on April 16th and receive a $500 token of gratitude.
Please contact Paula Rees (rees [at] umass [dot] edu (subject: ) (rees[at]umass[dot]edu)) if you have any questions.
Past Recipients
2024
- Yasra Chandio, Ph.D. student, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Anna Marie LaChance, lecturer, Department of Chemical Engineering
2023
- Jonisha Aubain, PhD student, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
- Shannon Roberts, associate professor, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
2022
- Rebecca Louisthelmy '22, Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Jay Taneja, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
2021
- Cielo Sharkus, doctoral candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Shelly Peyton, professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering
2020
- Sanket Sabnis, PhD candidate, Department of Chemical Engineering