Awards We Offer | LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

Awards We Offer

$1,000 Outstanding Service-Learning Faculty Award

The Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership (CCELL) in conjunction with the Community Engagement Advisory Council and the Office of Academic Affairs annually awards an outstanding faculty member for their commitment to service-learning. Award winners must demonstrate exceptional and sustained commitment to integrating quality service-learning activities into the academic curriculum while exemplifying best service-learning practices.  Service-learning activities should include significant community partner involvement with substantial outcomes and community impact. The nomination period is in the spring. 

Past Service-Learning Award Recipients

The Happy Awards

Happy Awards are given annually to ten individuals to recognize excellence in service-learning. The “Happy” was initiated to commemorate former CCELL director Jan Shoemaker’s 10 years of distinguished service, commitment to educate and service for the common good. Happy Award recipients receive a commemorative lapel pin, which was designed by service-learning students based on input from Shoemaker’s friends and colleagues. Award recipients can be faculty, students, and community partners. The nomination period is in the fall.

Past Happy Award Recipients

Graduate Scholars Program

In Winter Session 2020, CCELL launched the Graduate Scholars Program, which offers professional development and training to LSU graduate students interested in experiential education and hands-on learning that benefits the community. This program encourages the development of service-learning curricula that will impact instruction, promotes the institutionalization of service-learning courses in every department, advances the objectives of the LSU Flagship Agenda, and prepares graduate students in a range of disciplines for future careers involving civic engagement. All LSU graduate students are eligible. Graduate students in all disciplines, especially those from disciplines which currently do not offer service-learning, are encouraged to apply. Each Scholar will receive a certificate of completion after submitting a short report at the conclusion of the semester in which the service-learning class is taught. For the Spring 2023 application cycle, the program will offer a $1,000 stipend to each graduate scholar accepted into the program. Applications are due January 31, 2023.

Faculty Scholars

The Service-Learning Faculty Scholars Program is offered in rotation with the Community Engaged Research Scholars Program. The Faculty Scholars program offers $1,500 stipends to full-time LSU faculty members (rank of instructor or above) to attend a weekly seminar 1 hour per week for 5 weeks consisting of discussion and planning with other faculty scholars. Discussion topics will include S-L course design, civic responsibilities of universities, community partnerships, liability, assessment, and reflection as they relate to service-learning courses. Participants must develop a service-learning course syllabus during the planning semester and commit to integrate academic service-learning into a course taught in the following year. The next seminar will be offered in Spring 2023. Applications are due January 31, 2023.

Past Faculty Scholars Recipients

Online Faculty Scholars

CCELL will select a small number of faculty members to participate in our new Online Service-Learning Faculty Scholars Program in Spring 2020. We encourage applications from faculty who teach online at the rank of instructor or above in all disciplines. If accepted, each scholar receives a stipend of $1,000 ($500 on completion of the 4-week course, $500 after submitting a short report at the end of the semester the online service-learning class is taught). Faculty participants will be expected to attend each seminar session, develop an online service-learning course during the seminar that will be taught in Summer 2020, Fall 2020 or Spring 2021, and submit a short report about the course after teaching it. The next seminar will be offered in Spring 2023.

Community Engaged Research Scholars

Participants meet monthly to discuss topics related to engaged scholarship, including collaborating with community partners, identifying venues for publication, and framing work for career advancement, such as tenure and promotion. Faculty who are selected for the program will identify an item of engaged scholarship they wish to develop and finalize for dissemination during the academic year.  Engaged scholarship is “research in any field that partners university scholarly resources with those in the public and private sectors to enrich knowledge, address and help solve critical societal issues, and contribute to the public good” (Stanton, 2008). Engaged research questions at all stages of development (idea conception, experimental design, data collection and analysis, synthesis of results, and dissemination) are welcome. Program is offered in alternating academic years with the Faculty Scholars. Applications are accepted in early fall. The Service-Learning Faculty Scholars Program offers $1,500 stipends to full-time LSU faculty members at the completion of the program. 

Past Research Scholars Recipients