The Faculty Award for Excellence in Engaged Scholarship The Faculty Award for Excellence in Engaged Scholarship recognizes and celebrates a faculty member's extraordinary contributions to Loyola's students, community partners, and institutional mission through sustained involvement and excellence in one or more types of engaged scholarship (including service-learning). The award is given to one or two faculty members at the Dean's Symposium each spring. Awardees receive a plaque and $500. In addition, each awardee designates a community partner to be given $500. Awardees may receive the award only once. Learn about past honorees to discover some of the excellent work in engaged scholarship happing at Loyola!
There are numerous definitions. Dr. Robin Crews, Director of Service-Learning, defines it as follows: "Engaged Scholarship is scholarship (of discovery, integration, application and/or teaching) that involves collaboration between faculty and community (local, regional/state, national, global), partnership and reciprocity, and a mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources. It is scholarship that both involves and benefits the community. It is scholarship that is in service to the community (i.e., for and with the community), not just on the community." Service-learning is one type of engaged scholarship, i.e., it is the scholarship of teaching and learning that incorporates all three elements of community engagement.
- A biology professor with a specialty in urban ecology co-founded the Urban Ecology Institute in Boston, which provides educational, research and restoration programs to underserved neighborhoods and their residents; and developed the first national urban ecology curriculum for high school students.
- A professor of english translates academic research in British Renaissance literature into activities that make sense to teachers, students and community members outside the university. She uses this work to develop standards-based curricula in history and literature in local classrooms through "Humanities Out There" (HOT), a partnership she founded involving university students and faculty with K-12 students and teachers, which engages eight graduate students and 200+ undergraduates each year.
- A professor of human development works with the regional mental health system and arranges dialogues between health workers and individuals from the most underserved communities to improve services to children of color. Her research team, which includes six undergraduate students, a college alum, and a community youth, collaborates on presentations and peer-reviewed publications emerging from this work.
- An engineering professor helped design and build at least 12 playgrounds and raised $1.7 million in funding.
Do you know someone who excels in Engaged Scholarship? Contact Dr. Elizabeth Kennedy, chair of the Faculty Award Selection Committee, at engagedexcellence@loyola.edu. | 
