The Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity (OIED) hosts the Chancellor’s Creating Community Awards April 20 at 10 a.m. through its YouTube channel. Nominations for the awards are being accepted until March 7. 

The Chancellor’s Creating Community Awards feature five categories: students, staff, faculty, student organizations and colleges, organizations, or units. 

“They’re awards to recognize diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across NC State’s campus to really give awards, recognition and highlight any of the work that people have been doing in terms of [diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)] work or anything in their respective units, ” said Nicole Robelo, program coordinator for OIED. 

The event is called the Chancellor’s Creating Community Awards because the chancellor’s office donates the monetary prizes for the awards. 

“It really showcases that the chancellor is committed and engaged with DEI work and cares about it,” Robelo said. “It’s really to showcase that NC State is engaged in DEI, that we’re celebrating it, that it’s a part of our mission, our values and our plan, and that we do want to recognize this really important work and encourage other people to do it.”

Each year, a nomination committee is formed to seek out nominations across campus and to decide who wins the awards in each category. 

“We try to get people from a diverse background on campus,” Robelo said. “We don’t just want people interacting with our office. We want people that are interacting with students, faculty and staff in different ways. We want faculty, staff and students to serve on the nominations committee to have a diverse group of people to get a diverse group who they think should win the award.”

Courtney Hotchkiss and Roslynn Powell, Ph.D. students studying parks, recreation and tourism management, are two out of a group of three students who won awards last year. They were nominated by faculty members for their work within the Graduate Student Association. Hotchkiss and Powell said it was nice being acknowledged for the work they were doing. 

“I think, for me, that was the most important part of the award was that faculty recognized and very intentionally pointed it out to us,” Hotchkiss said.

Powell said, when doing DEI work, recognition isn’t really expected.

“When you do this kind of community work, you don’t necessarily do it thinking there will be some type of recognition or award in the end,” Powell said. “So, to know that our faculty are watching and seeing our efforts and seeing that in nominating us for the award, that made me feel, like obviously we do what we do because we love it, but also it was really nice to be recognized.”

Powell said the award is now a motivator when she’s feeling low. 

“It’s one of those things that when I feel overwhelmed or tired or feeling on the verge of giving up, it’s that reminder that I do have a community who’s looking out for me and that acts as a motivator, because I think it’s really easy to be a grad student, go to classes, do my research and graduate, but to leave the community in someway changed, I think is really meaningful work, and that’s what the award has done for me,” Powell said.

Robelo said she encourages the NC State community to get involved with the Chancellor’s Creating Community Awards. 

“To get involved, if you have someone in mind you would like to nominate, definitely do that,” Robelo said. “If you don’t and you can just share the information about the nominations, they close March 7, so we want to get that out to as many people as possible. Spread the word. Also, we are still looking for student and faculty volunteers to serve on the nomination committee. And, of course, tuning into the live event April 20th and being engaged that way.”

Nominations for the Chancellor’s Creating Community Awards are taken through an online form.