Maxwell-Lutz Community Impact Award
NAU faculty in SBS, CEFNS, and CEIAS are encouraged to submit proposals for this award
The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS), the College of the Environment, Forestry, and Natural Sciences (CEFNS), and the College of Engineering, Informatics, and Applied Sciences (CEIAS) announce the Maxwell-Lutz Community Impact Award for teams to submit proposals for consideration.
Applications are due date February 3, 2020. The online application period will open on December 5, 2019.
Funding of up to $5,000 annually may be awarded to one team or shared by multiple teams.
A proposal, developed and submitted by one or more faculty members, must specify the following for consideration for funding:
- A substantive and verifiable community impact;
- An interdisciplinary collaboration that must include faculty or students from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences in coordination with faculty and students from the College of Engineering, Informatics and Applied Sciences and/or the College of the Environment, Forestry, and Natural Sciences; and
- Participation of one or more undergraduate or graduate student/s
The project proposal should address how the project effectively integrates any two of the following:
- improve the health and well-being of local and/or global communities;
- improve the vitality of community or cultural systems; or
- improve environmental sustainability
Projects that are interdisciplinary and cross-departmental shall be given extra weight in deliberations.
Members of the team/s for the selected projects will be designated as Maxwell-Lutz Fellows.
2019 Winner Accordion Closed
Community-based waste management project in Chitete-Kasungu Municipality, Malawi
Joseph Amazuwa Chirwa, Sustainable Communities; Dr. Dianne McDonnell, Assistant Professor of Practice, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Joseph Amazuwa Chirwa, a graduate student in Sustainable Communities and recipient of the 2019 Maxwell-Lutz Community Impact Award, spent the summer in Africa working on a community-based waste management project in the Chitete-Kasungu Municipality in Malawi. The month-long project aimed to help the local community realize the economic incentive that lies beneath waste. Working specifically with the Chitete Women Cooperative, Joseph encouraged and implemented recycling and composting in the township’s communal garden, worked with the cooperative to manage solid waste, and stressed the importance of micro credit through waste management. He also introduced an in-school recycling campaign to develop technologies to mitigate the waste program.The initial project, intended to improve the livelihood of this low-income municipality, has now been adopted by the community. The project is made possible through funding by Susanna Maxwell and Barry Lutz.
Application procedure Accordion Closed
Submit your proposal (as defined below) starting on December 5, 2019 by completing an online application form. Applications are due on February 3, 2020.
Please have the following information available before you attempt to post your application:
1. Project information:
- Project title
- Project outline
- Describe the project. (300 words or less)
- List the faculty leader(s) of this project and contact information.
- List the top three goals of this project and how the success of each will be measured.
- If this project is a standalone project, describe its intended substantial and verifiable benefit for the community. (200 words or less)
- If this project is intended to support another ongoing project or thesis, describe the project and how these funds would make a significant difference to the success of the other project and the intended substantial and verifiable benefit for the community that it or the other project would make. (200 words or less)
2. Student information:
- List the role of students in the project
- Provide the name, major and class year (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior or graduate student) of the students participating in the proposed project.
- If this project supplements another ongoing project or thesis, provide the title of the project or thesis and the name of the principals and departments involved.
3. Budget information:
- Provide general budget outline for project including the total amount requested including justification and a breakdown by categories. Allowable categories include student wage/graduate stipend (limited to 60% of the request), equipment, supplies, and travel.
4. Review process
Proposals will be reviewed by a selection committee comprised of one representative each from SBS, CEIAS, and CEFNS and one community member.
5. Post award process
- Student participants to present the results of the project and what they learned at an event or meeting such as the Northern Arizona University Undergraduate Expo; and
- Faculty participants will prepare a post-project report which includes an evaluation of its outcomes with relation to proposed community impacts and project goals, and a complete list of expenditures. This report will be distributed to the selection committee and Founders within 90 days of the completed funding period.
Past awardees Accordion Closed
2018 “Promoting Education and Elephants in a rural Zambian Community”
Kaitlyn Henry-CEFNS, Samantha Hershowitz-CEFNS, Tyler Tuengel-CEFNS, Nate Gordon-CEFNS, Railyn Stokes-SBS, Dr. Faith Walker-CEFNS, Dr. Carol Chambers-CEFNS, and Dr. Alan Lew-SBS
2017 “Prioritizing Ecological Restoration Sites for Educational Purposes”
Adam Bringhurst-CEFNS, Samantha Dinning-SBS, Olivia Camping-SBS, Dr. Rand Decker-CEFNS, Dr. Wilbert Odem-CEFNS, Dr. James Bowie-SBS, and Mark Manone-SBS
2016 “PICES Project – Pilot Intervention of Culturally-Responsive Exercise System”
Christopher Frank-CEFNS, Annalee Boyle-CEFNS, Jeff Morrison-CEFNS, Ashley Averett-SBS, Anna Harris-SBS, Dr. Sara Jarvis-CEFNS, and Dr. Melissa Birkett-SBS
Winning project in 2019
Community-based waste management project in Chitete-Kasungu Municipality, Malawi 
Opens December 5, 2019