Ohio State's University Outreach and Engagement Awards honor faculty, staff, students and community partners for outstanding achievement in producing engaged scholarship and community impact.
Select the award names below to apply and find out more information about each award:
Community Engaged Scholar Award
The Community Engaged Scholar Award recognizes faculty members who have demonstrated co-created engaged scholarship that has positively impacted communities. Community Engaged Scholars have made significant contributions to Ohio State's culture of engagement, further establishing and strengthening the institution's commitment to communities.
Award amount: $1,000
Community Engaged Practitioner Award
The Community Engaged Practitioner Award recognizes staff members who have demonstrated superior commitment to developing, coordinating, and/or sustaining projects, activities, or initiatives involving Ohio State and community partners that enhance engaged scholarship and community impacts.
Award amount: $1,000
Community Engaged Graduate Student Award
The Community Engaged Graduate Student Award recognizes graduate students who have demonstrated engaged scholarship that has positively impacted communities through their research, scholarship and service.
Award amount: $500
Program of Excellence in Engaged Scholarship Certification
To support and promote high-impact engaged scholarship, the Office of Outreach and Engagement has instituted a process to certify programs of excellence in engaged scholarship. The certification process seeks to identify and certify projects annually that demonstrate excellence in community-engaged scholarship and meet the criteria of high-impact engaged scholarship.
Award amount for top three selected programs: $1,000
National Awards
Peter Magrath Award for Community Engagement
The Peter Magrath Award for Community Engagement provides national recognition for the outstanding community-university engagement work of public universities. It is presented by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) at the annual meeting in November. National award winners receive a cash prize of $20,000.
Engagement Scholarship Consortium Awards
The Engagement Scholarship Consortium Awards Program recognizes higher education institutions and their exemplary contributions to scholarship and the practice of engaged scholarship.
- Terron Banner was selected as the 2025 Excellence in Outreach and Engagement Professional Engagement Award recipient.
- Shaunta Stanford was selected as the 2023 Excellence in Staff Community Engagement Award recipient.
- The Franklin County Local Food Council was selected as the 2022 Excellence in Faculty Community Engagement Award recipient.
- Ohio State was selected as the 2019 Ryan, Moser, Reilly Award for Excellence in Community Engagement Institutional Leadership recipient.
- Ohio State's Generation Rx program was selected as the 2018 Excellence in Community Partner Engagement Award recipient.
Regional Awards
The Engagement Scholarship Consortium recognizes regional winners of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Awards at the Engagement Scholarship Consortium Conference every October. Regional winners receive $5,000 and are considered for the national award. Each university may submit one nominee for the regional award.
- Ohio State's Columbus Free Clinic was selected as the 2023 North Central region winner.
- Ohio State's LiFEsports initiative was selected as the 2020 North Central region winner.
- Ohio State's Young Scholars Program was selected as the 2013 North Central region winner.
- Ohio State's Comprehensive Approach to Urban Revitalization was selected as the 2008 North Central Region Winner.
- Ohio State's Engaged Partners was selected as the 2007 North Central regional winner.
The Kellogg Awards program also recognizes "Exemplary Projects" as part of the award competition.