Award

As an Advising Innovation Winner, the recipients receive an engraved plaque presented at NACADA’s Annual Conference. As an Advising Innovation Certificate of Merit, the recipients receive framed certificates at NACADA’s Annual Conference.

Submissions can be made by an individual or a team and are via the NACADA Awards online nomination system. If you are completing an individual submission, you must be a current NACADA member at the time of applying (learn how to become a member here). If you are completing a submission on behalf of a team, provide the names of all your team members in the accompanying description. Clearly identify one main contact for the nomination that must be a current NACADA member at the time of submission.

Award Categories: 

There are two categories for this award.  Institutions may submit for both categories.

• Institution-wide innovation – an innovation strategy that impacts an entire institution
• Department-wide innovation – an innovation strategy that impacts a specific population of students within an advising department or center (e.g. Communication and Journalism majors)

Criteria: 

• Impact (35%)
• Clarity (25%)
• Content (25%)
• Creativity (10%)
• Overall Impression (5%)

Eligibility:

• Advising innovation must be implemented for at least 1 academic year at the time of submission (may include pilot period)
• Clear evidence of effectiveness is required

Submission Procedures:

Nominations must contain adequate factual or descriptive material to enable the Selection Committee to evaluate the program, including:

1. A completed Nomination Submission using the online awards portal
2. An abstract not to exceed 250 words
3. A clear indication which category your submission pertains to (institution-wide innovation or department-wide innovation)  
4. A complete nomination packet, not more than 2,500 words in length, double spaced, and in the following order and format:
   1. Institution name and description
   2. Description of the problems/issues the innovation was intended to fix/improve
   3. Rationale for innovation (why, how, and when did the innovation occur?)
   4. Description of innovation (what did the innovation consist of?)
5. Evidence and results which includes:
   1. Demonstrated success of innovation in terms of improving advising effectiveness, advising efficiency, and/or student success (when possible, please include any data, before/after comparisons, etc.)
   2. Impact of innovation on students, advisors, and/or institution
   3. Supporting evidence could be marketing materials, handouts, webpages, visuals, presentations, evidence of impact, etc.
6. Supporting statements:
   1. Impact statements or letters (up to 3) student statements do not apply
   2. Elicit evidence of the impact of the innovation from various levels of the program or institution

Supporting materials will be accepted in the Appendices section. Links may be provided from the NACADA website to the websites of the nominated initiative, if applicable. The online system will allow you to submit more than one attachment for the appendices but the total number of pages if printed should be no more than 40. All documents must be uploaded in PDF format.