College of Communication and Fine Arts

Undergraduate Outstanding Achievement Award

The Dean’s Undergraduate Outstanding Achievement Award is given to the student who demonstrates an exceptional level of creative/scholarly achievement throughout the student’s undergraduate studies in relation to peers within their discipline. The criteria is based on the quality of both the student’s creative/scholarly achievements and presentation.

Departments submit the selected nominee to Ashley Harris. Students nominated to the CCFA Leadership Team will receive a $100 check and a plaque. The Dean's Undergraduate Outstanding Achievement Award winner will receive $250 and a plaque. All selected students will be recognized at the university-wide Honors Assembly.

  • Deadline for departmental nominations is Thursday, March 6, 2025.

Selection criteria for departmental nominee:

  • The chair of each department will send out a call for nominations to all faculty
  • The faculty should submit a brief statement detailing how the student meets the criteria (Form)
  • The student nominations should be reviewed by the departmental scholarship/awards committee and the final recommendation should be forwarded to the department chair
  • The chair will forward that recommendation to Ashley Harris.
  • Each chair should ensure that the department award nominee has a dedicated faculty member to advise the student in preparing the submission materials to the CCFA Leadership Team

Award criteria:

  1. Creative/Scholarly Accomplishments (60%)
    1. Creative/scholarly outcomes throughout the course of undergraduate studies should:
      • Show increasingly complex levels of engagement with the nominee’s subject matter
      • Embrace innovative approaches to knowledge acquisition, critical analysis, and problem solving
      • Demonstrate an enthusiasm for exploring different perspectives and developing new skills

    1. The featured creative project (which may be practice-based or academically focused) should:
      • Show a sophisticated understanding of, and critical engagement with, the nominee’s subject matter
      • Challenge, enhance or investigate the parameters of the nominee’s discipline

  1. Presentation (40%)
    • The presentation (no more than 15 minutes) of the nominee’s creative/scholarly achievement should:
      • Include commentary on both the body of the nominee’s work throughout the course of the nominee’s undergraduate studies and on the nominee’s featured creative/scholarly project
      • Be informative, persuasive, coherent and articulate
      • Include pertinent visual examples of the nominee’s creative/scholarly accomplishments (e.g. via PowerPoint, film clips, images of art work, designs, musical/theatrical/dance performance excerpts, textual excerpts)