Awards FAQ

Frequently asked questions about the Faculty Outreach Award, Emerging Faculty Outreach Award, and the Community Engagement and Scholarship Award.

What is the difference between the Faculty Outreach Award and the Community Engagement and Scholarship Award?

  • The Faculty Outreach Award recognizes an individual faculty member for his/her body of work in and significant contribution to outreach and engaged scholarship. They have extended their scholarship to external constituents resulting in significant impact on individuals, communities, or organizations. The Community Engagement and Scholarship Award recognizes a Penn State engaged scholarship project or initiative that exemplifies an engaged institution as defined in the Kellogg Commission Report Returning to Our Roots: The Engaged Institution. The report lays out seven guiding characteristics of an engaged institution: responsiveness, respect for partners, academic neutrality, accessibility, integration, coordination, and resource partnerships.

Can I apply for both awards?

  • There is no restriction on applying for both; however, the two awards are recognizing exceptional but different academic scholarship with different criteria for each.

Can both faculty and staff be nominated for the Faculty Outreach Award?

  • For the Faculty Outreach Award, only full-time faculty members, including librarians, at all locations, whose primary responsibilities are teaching, research, and/or service, are eligible. See Faculty Senate rules for the definition of “University Faculty.”

Can both faculty and staff nominate initiatives for the Community Engagement and Scholarship Award?

  • For the Community Engagement and Scholarship Award, faculty or staff members, or a team of faculty and staff, may nominate a project; however, a lead faculty or staff must be identified on the application form.

How are these awards recognized?

  • Both award winners will be recognized at the University Faculty Staff Awards luncheon, hosted by the President, and awarded a $1,000 stipend. The winning Community Engagement and Scholarship Award project also becomes Penn State’s submission for the Northeast region W.K. Kellogg Outreach Scholarship Award, sponsored by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU). Regional winners receive a stipend of $6,000 and advance to compete for the C. Peter Magrath University Community Engagement Award. The national award includes a stipend of $20,000.

Are there stories of exemplary faculty who have received the Faculty Outreach Award in the past?

What Penn State projects and initiatives have received the Community Engagement and Scholarship Award? 

  • The Penn State Community Engagement and Scholarship Award was launched in 2009, and the W.K. Kellogg Outreach Scholarship and C. Peter Magrath University Community Engagement awards were launched in 2007. Since then, a number of outstanding projects have received the award. See the Past Recipients of the Community Engagement and Scholarship Award to learn more.

Can digitized materials be submitted in support of the Faculty Outreach Award, Emerging Faculty Outreach Award, and the Community Engagement and Scholarship Award? 

  • Nomination forms with supporting nomination materials should be submitted by email as one PDF file to COEAwards@outreach.psu.edu. If you include digitized collateral with the application, please provide links for online viewing.

If our initiative is selected as a winner of the Community Engagement and Scholarship Award, what must the recipient team prepare in order to apply as Penn State’s submission for the Northeast region Kellogg Outreach Scholarship Award? If our initiative is selected as a regional winner, what are the expectations to compete for the national Magrath Award?