Purpose/Description
The Community Perspective and Practice Award celebrates and recognizes practices that foster community outreach. It honors work outside the classroom, engaging a community that would be deemed non-dominant. This is work that creates partnerships to effect positive social change, whether the change be on an individualized level or on a broader, system-wide, policy level—or a synergistic blend. The recipient receives $1,000 USD from a Board-approved sponsor (Peter D. Cardon), a plaque or certificate, and will be invited to give a presentation at the following ABC Annual International Conference.
Eligibility Criteria
The achievements that this award will honor should involve service learning, community service, engaged learning, or some other type of activity that promotes social awareness and the spirit of understanding community perspectives. There are many possible constituencies who could be involved in these types of contributions: students in a class or directed study, students in clubs or participating in co-curricular activities, university faculty and administrators involved in curriculum change, consultants who broaden clients' perspectives, or employees coming together to benefit others outside the typical constraints of their jobs.
The work or project should demonstrate the core values of partnership. The participants should learn about and benefit one another. There should be a continual analysis, evaluation, and feedback loop during the partnership, which can be a fixed or ongoing collaboration.
The award purposely takes a broad interpretation of community perspectives and practice and service. The committee is open to a wide variety of activities that match the award criteria. The committee will also be happy to give applicants guidance and feedback as they prepare their proposals.
The nominee must be a member of ABC in good standing for one year prior to applying.
Nominations/Selection
The award is open to any ABC member. People can be nominated or self-nominate. To be considered for this award, submit a short (no more than 1,000 words) description of the project that includes the non-dominant community served, the type of partnership created, any of the many possible types of applied learning involved, the change effected, some of the issues learned, and any plans for moving forward. The Community Perspectives and Practice Committee will evaluate nominations to determine the recipient of the Community Perspectives and Award. The committee will inform the Executive Director.
If no nominee fulfills the award criteria within a given year, the committee may choose not to select a winner.
Please log in to the ABC website and complete the application form at the bottom of this page by June 1, with names and email addresses of dean, department chair, or other press release contact. Contact Sarah Moore, chair of the Community Perspectives and Practice Committee if you need assistance or if you use a screen reader.
Preparing for Following Year's Conference
The recipient are invited to present a paper at the following year’s conference and should submit the paper during the submission period.
Notification
The award winner and candidates will be notified by the Executive Director or designee at least 90 days before the ABC Annual International Conference. The winner will be asked to submit a photograph to be used in the award presentation.
Previous Winners
2025: Heather Hansen, Global Speech Academy
2025: Kathryn Lookadoo, University of Texas at Dallas
2023: Stephanie Smith, Virginia Tech
2022: Kathy Fisher, Indiana University (tie)
2022: Huatong Sun, University of Washington Tacoma (tie)
2021: Sushil Oswal, University of Washington and Zsuzsanna Palmer, Grand Valley State University
2020: Larissa Ramos, University of Miami
2019: Clive Muir, ThinkCraftSolve
2018: Junhua Wang, University of Minnesota Duluth
2017: Robyn Albers, Zayed University
2016: Anita Pandey, Morgan State University