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College of Natural Sciences Teaching & Mentoring Awards

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

The College of Natural Sciences is soliciting nominations for its 2023 faculty and graduate student teaching and mentoring awards. The purpose of these awards is to offer public recognition to superior teachers and mentors in our college and to focus attention on our commitment to excellence in education.

The award categories recognize various types of contributions our faculty and graduate students make to the teaching mission of the College and University. We expect to make between four and six awards distributed amongst the four categories listed below.

  • Faculty excellence in undergraduate teaching and/or mentoring award
  • Faculty excellence in graduate teaching and/or mentoring award
  • Early career (pre-tenure) faculty excellence in teaching and/or mentoring award
  • Graduate student excellence in undergraduate teaching and/or mentoring award

Tenure track faculty (TTF) and Contract, Continuing & Adjunct Faculty (CCAF) are eligible for the faculty excellence in undergraduate and graduate teaching and/or mentoring awards. The early career award is limited to pre-tenure TTF.

Departments, individual faculty, or established student organizations may submit nominations. Please limit nominations in each award category to no more than two per department. All nominations should be signed by the department chairs.  This does not mean the department chair must make the nomination or write the seconding letter.

The College Awards Committee will review nominations and provide recommendations to the Dean who will make the final selections. Recipients of the awards will be announced by mid-October 2022 and will be recognized at the College Awards Ceremony. Details to be provided at a later date.

All nominations are due at 5:00 p.m. Friday, September 22, 2023.

Please send any questions to CNS_info@mail.colostate.edu.

A list of previous award recipients is available at https://www.natsci.colostate.edu/faculty-staff/college-of-natural-sciences-award-recipients

Committee Login

FACULTY TEACHING & MENTORING AWARDS

Nomination Deadline: 5:00 p.m. Friday, September 22, 2023

Eligibility

To be eligible for these awards, a faculty member must:

  • hold a faculty appointment in the College of Natural Sciences,
  • have completed at least three full years at CSU as of August 15 and
  • not have received the award within the preceding five years.

Award Categories

  • Faculty excellence in undergraduate teaching and/or mentoring
  • Faculty excellence in graduate teaching and/or mentoring
  • Early career (pre-tenure) faculty excellence in teaching and/or mentoring

Award Criteria

  1. Activity: Consistent and substantial record of involvement in activities relevant to the award category.
  2. Impact: Influence on students (in the academic or professional activities of graduate or undergraduate students), including those not directly mentored or supervised (for example, contributions to graduate advisory committees, curriculum development, improved teaching methods, department or university undergraduate research programs, etc.).
  3. Quality: Evidence of the high quality of teaching and/or mentoring. For example, teaching evaluations, publications/presentations with students, etc.

Nomination Packet for Faculty Awards

The nomination packet should include the following components:

  1. Cover sheet with the nominee’s name, department, award category and signature of the department chair.
  2. One-paragraph summary of nominee’s achievements and excellence in teaching and/or mentoring.
  3. Two-page curriculum vitae highlighting information relevant for the award.
  4. List of all courses taught at CSU over the past three years.
  5. A letter of nomination (not to exceed three pages) describing the nominee’s qualifications for the award and addressing the award criteria of activity, impact, and quality.
  6. One seconding letter (not to exceed two pages). The seconding letter may be from either a faculty member or student, but should include student input in some manner. If the letter of nomination comes from a student organization, the seconding letter must be from a faculty member.
  7. Teaching evaluations. For example, peer teaching evaluations or signed solicited comments from students for courses taught at CSU within the past three years (different courses if possible). These are not required for a mentoring nomination, but may be replaced by similar evaluations of mentoring ability.

GRADUATE STUDENT TEACHING & MENTORING AWARD

Nomination Deadline: 5:00 p.m. Friday, September 23, 2022

Eligibility

To be eligible for these awards, a graduate student must have:

  • completed at least two semesters as a graduate student in the College of Natural Sciences as of August 22, 2022 and
  • not have previously received this award.

Award Criteria

  1. Quality: Excellent performance in the classroom, recitation, or laboratory and/or evidence of the high quality of the undergraduate research mentoring activity.
  2. Initiative: Commitment to and interest in the educational process beyond that required by their appointment. For example, involvement in activities related to teaching but taking place outside of the classroom (clubs, review sessions, committees, etc.), innovation in instruction, development of instructional technologies, extraordinary teaching responsibilities, etc.
  3. Breadth: Diversity of roles and responsibilities (instructor, co-instructor, teaching assistant, teaching fellow, research mentor, etc.).

Nomination Packet for Graduate Student Award

The nomination packet should include the following components:

  1. Cover sheet with the nominee’s name, department and signature of the department chair (and “Graduate student excellence in teaching and/or mentoring award”).
  2. One-paragraph summary of nominee’s achievements and excellence in teaching and/or mentoring.
  3. Two-page curriculum vitae highlighting information relevant to the award.
  4. List of all courses taught or assisted in teaching as a graduate student at CSU.
  5. A letter of nomination (not to exceed three pages) written by a faculty member who has first-hand knowledge of the graduate student’s effectiveness, addressing the award criteria defined above.
  6. One seconding letter (not to exceed two pages). The seconding letter maybe from either a faculty member or student, but should include student input in some manner.
  7. Evaluations from two courses (can be from the same or different courses). For example, supervising instructor evaluations or signed solicited comments from students. These are not required for a mentoring nomination, but may be replaced by similar evaluations of mentoring ability.