President Robbyn Wacker has chosen recipients for the 2021 Minnesota Campus Compact engage campus awards. The awards include honors for a student, a professor and a community-based organization.
The 2021 Minnesota Campus Compact awards promote community and civic work. The awards are selected annually to recognize outstanding accomplishments in student leadership, civic engagement leadership and community partnership. Along with these awards, Around Cloud Tutors was also recently named the recipient of a 2021 Engaged Campus Award for Emerging Innovation from Minnesota Campus Compact.
Based on recommendations, Wacker chose the following award recipients:
Student Leadership Award
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| Sally Nelson |
Sally Nelson received the Presidents’ Student Leadership Award. This award is for an individual student or a student organization that models a deep commitment to civic responsibility and leadership, evidenced by initiative, innovative and collaborative approaches to addressing public issues, effective community building, and integration of civic engagement into the college experience.
Nelson, a senior captain on the St. Cloud State Women’s Soccer team, was the driving force behind the creation of a youth soccer clinic to help serve the Southside neighborhood near the SCSU campus. Working with the Community Outpost House, her soccer teammates, the Sanneh Foundation and CentraCare, Nelson secured coaches, free soccer balls and cleats for youth to participate.
Civic Engagement Leadership Award
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| Dr. Annette S. Lee |
Dr. Annette S. Lee received the Presidents’ Civic Engagement Leadership Award. This award is for a member of the faculty, administration, or staff or for a group (e.g., advisory committee, task force, project team) that has significantly advanced their campus’ distinctive civic mission by forming strong partnerships, supporting others’ civic and community engagement, and working to institutionalize a culture and practice of engagement.
Dr. Lee, Associate Professor of Astronomy and Physics and Director of the SCSU Planetarium, is deeply committed to public engagement and blending science, art, and culture throughout her professional endeavors. An interdisciplinary scholar who is mixed-race Lakota and her communities are Ojibwe and D(L)akota, Lee’s work is known internationally. She works closely with Native American and First Nations communities and museums. Her work and research has led to strong international collaborations with Indigenous knowledge keepers and researchers in Aboriginal Australia, Maori New Zealand, Hawaii, South Africa, Mexico, Alaska, and South America. Dr. Lee has decades of experience in Astronomy Education Research particularly related to the role of culture in teaching and learning science, culturally responsive pedagogy, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and evaluation/assessment. Dr. Lee also recently won the 2021 AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement in Science.
Community Partner Award
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| Chartwells |
Chartwells received the Presidents’ Community Partner Award. This award is for a community-based individual or organization that has enhanced the quality of life in the community in meaningful and measurable ways and has engaged in the development of sustained, reciprocal partnerships with the college or university, thus enriching educational as well as community outcomes.
Chartwells has been a leader in addressing food insecurity for St. Cloud State students with their meal swipe donation, food insecurity grant program in Garvey Commons. They have hosted food drives as part of their organizational commitment to addressing hunger in communities. Since early 2020 when the pandemic hit, Chartwells stepped up their support for food insecure students even more. They donated hundreds of pounds of food to the Huskies Food Pantry. They provide space in their commercial kitchen for Food Pantry staff to repack bulk items, store frozen items, and they connected Pantry staff to Sysco Midwest for low cost and free products.
Related Story: Around Cloud Tutors named a recipient of Minnesota Campus Compact award
