Awards for NAU Graduate Students
NAU Master’s and Doctoral students can be nominated for a number of awards including fellowships, recruiting travel funding, graduate teaching assistantships and more. Contact us to find resources to help answer your questions about available awards, deadlines and requirements.
Outstanding Graduate Assistant Awards
The 2019-2020 nomination cycle is currently closed.
Faculty, staff, and administrators are invited to nominate a graduate assistant for one of the three categories: Graduate Research Assistants, Graduate Service Assistants, and Graduate Teaching Assistants. We know that there are many well-deserving graduate assistants at NAU; please help us recognize the impact they make at NAU in the classroom, in the lab and on research projects, and in the various offices on campus by recommending one that you know!
Questions can be directed to GradAwards@nau.edu.
Graduate Student of the Month Award
There are many outstanding graduate students on NAU’s campus. This award recognizes graduate students who exemplify the qualities and behaviors that are valued in our NAU graduate students, for example graduate students who…
- show exemplary mentoring skills with a peer or a near peer (i.e., an undergraduate student)
- show patience and tact while explaining a concept to a student or to a peer
- develop lectures, lesson plans, activities that teach a difficult concept in a very innovative and effective way
- do extraordinarily well on an important assessment, a research paper, or an involved project after struggling with a
concept or course - beat the odds in the face of a personal situation has affected their academic progress
- show marked improvement (in a course, program, research, teaching skills, job-related duties)
- demonstrate leadership skills in class, the lab, their classrooms, on campus, etc.
Rules and regulations Accordion Closed
- Individual faculty, administrators, or staff may nominate outstanding students for this award. Each academic college is assigned its own month of the academic year, during which time the top student will be recognized. (Please see below.)
- Students may be nominated based on accomplishments / qualities exhibited at any point during the current academic year, e.g., a professor may observe a graduate student who showed exceptional teaching skills in October and then nominate the student the following April).
- Nominations from students are not accepted.
- Nominations are accepted through the 15th of each month, except for the month of April, whose nominations are due by April 5 so that the evaluation committee has time to make their selection for April.
- College faculty, administrators, or staff may nominate any current graduate student, even if the student’s degree program is offered through a different college (e.g., a COE professor can nominate a CAL student who showed marked improvement in an Educational Psychology course; the COE professor would nominate the student in COE’s recognition month – January).
- A college may nominate more than one student in their college’s designated month.
Nominators do not need to consult with one another or come to a consensus on a nominee. - Nominees must be current, active students during the month of the nomination.
- If no nominations are received from a college during its recognition month, the evaluation committee will consider previous nominations from any college.
College eligibility by month and affiliated deadlines Accordion Closed
August: CAL and Graduate College administrators, faculty, and staff nominate graduate students by Aug. 15
September: CEIAS faculty, administrators, and staff nominate graduate students by Sept. 15
October: CEFNS faculty, administrators, and staff nominate graduate students by Oct. 15
November: CHHS faculty, administrators, and staff nominate graduate students by Nov. 15
December: none
January: COE faculty, administrators, and staff nominate graduate students by Jan. 15
February: FCB faculty, administrators, and staff nominate graduate students by Feb. 15
March: College of Online, Off-campus, and Education Innovation (Master of Organizational Leadership, Global Business Administration, and Personalized Learning only) faculty, administrators, and staff nominate graduate students by Mar. 15
April: SBS faculty, administrators, and staff nominate a graduate student by Apr. 5*
*Please note the earlier deadline.
Nomination Form Accordion Closed
Nominators will be asked to provide basic contact information and the answer to this one question: How does the student embody the qualities and behaviors that are valued at NAU?
Any questions can be directed to the Associate Dean of the Graduate College: Karina.Collentine@nau.edu
Presidential Fellowship Program
For highly qualified incoming Ph.D. students, Northern Arizona University began the Presidential Fellowship Program (PFP) in 2015, offering approximately $23,000 per academic year. The program is designed to recruit outstanding doctoral students to NAU and increase the numbers of PhD students involved in research and instructional activities. Students cannot apply directly for these fellowships. Nominations are made and submitted by Ph.D. graduate coordinators or department chairs. The Graduate College encourages faculty members to nominate outstanding students for the fellowship as early in the academic year as possible.
Detailed information and the nomination process may be found on the Presidential Fellowship Program website.
Thesis and dissertation awards
Council of Graduate Schools/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award
First presented in 1981 and sponsored jointly by CGS and ProQuest Dissertations Publishing (a Division of ProQuest Information and Learning), these awards are made each year to individuals who, in the opinion of the award committee, have completed dissertations representing original work that makes an unusually significant contribution to the discipline.
Two awards are given annually in two different broad areas, chosen by CGS. These areas include:
- Social sciences
- Mathematics, physical sciences and engineering
- Biological sciences
- Humanities and fine arts
Individuals must be nominated for these awards by a member institution. The annual fields of competition can be found by visiting the CGS website.
Please contact the Graduate College Dean, Dr. Maribeth Watwood, if you are interested in nominating one of your students for the award.
Western Association of Graduate Schools Outstanding Thesis Award
Each year, the Western Association of Graduate Schools (WAGS) and ProQuest seek nominees for two award categories: The WAGS/ProQuest Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award and the WAGS/ProQuest Innovation in Technology Award. The approximate deadline for thesis/dissertation submittal is mid-August. The winners are announced in March at the WAGS annual meeting.
Details on the awards and nomination process can be found on the WAGS website. Please contact the Graduate College Dean, Dr. Maribeth Watwood, if you are interested in nominating one of your students for these awards.
Graduate Coordinator Award
The 2019-2020 nomination cycle is currently closed.
Faculty, staff, administrators, and graduate students are invited to nominate a graduate coordinator for the Graduate Coordinator Award. The graduate coordinator is a faculty member charged with managing the essentials of the graduate program. This may include oversight of, or involvement in, graduate student recruitment and admissions, orientation and training, fellowships and funding, and graduate assistantship appointments, assignments, and/or supervision. The graduate coordinator plays a central role in communication between the graduate program, prospective and current students, and the Graduate College, and the quality of support provided to students, and the operation of the graduate program depends in large part on the graduate coordinator. The Graduate College seeks to recognize those faculty members in this position who exceed expectations by making innovative or unique contributions that positively impact the quality of the graduate program and/or student experience.
Questions can be directed to GradAwards@nau.edu.