Since 2017, Michigan State University has hosted an annual Outreach and Engagement Awards Ceremony. Organized by the Office of University Outreach and Engagement, the ceremony honors and shines a light on exemplary high-quality community-engaged scholarship and university outreach activities through a number of recognitions programs. The awards are a statement that Michigan State University deeply values, encourages, and celebrates the accomplishments of its faculty, staff, students, and partners in community engagement. 

2024 MSU Outreach and Engagement Awards Ceremony

March 21, 2024 | 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center

Registration opens January, 2024


2023 Award Recipients

Spartan Volunteer Service Awards 

  • Representative Recipients: Anthony Sabah Barash, College of Social Science; Sarah Downing, College of Social Science; Krystal Jang, Lyman Briggs College and Honors College; Hady Omar, College of Natural Science; Arianna Pittenger, College of Social Science

2023 Graduate Student Award for Community Engagement Scholarship

  • Recipients: Chelsie Boodoo, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and College of Engineering; Alexandra Lee, College of Education
  • Commendations: Sophie Huss, College of Natural Science; Alyssa LaBerge, College of Social Science

2023 Graduate Student Award for Science Communication and Outreach

  • Recipient: Corinn Rutkoski, College of Natural Science

2023 Distinguished Partnership Award for Community-Engaged Service 

  • Recipient: Caregiving, Aging, Research, and Education with AgeAlive and IMPART Alliance
    Clare C. Luz, College of Osteopathic Medicine, with the City of East Lansing Prime Time Seniors Program 

2023 Distinguished Partnership Award for Community-Engaged Teaching 

  • Recipient: Community-Engaged Learning: Bridging Medical Education and Community-Based Strategies to Leverage Health Sciences, Social Initiatives, and Evidence-Based Knowledge
    Carolina Restini, College of Osteopathic Medicine, with Chippewa High School Coalition for Youth and Families, Chippewa Valley High School, and Dakota High School 

2023 Distinguished Partnership Award for Community-Engaged Creative Activity 

  • Recipient: MSU and the Lansing School District: Building an Intergenerational Constellation of Partnerships with Latinx and Indigenous Lansing School District Youth and Families
    J. Estrella Torrez, Residential College in the Arts and Humanities, with the Lansing School District

2023 Distinguished Partnership Award for Community-Engaged Research 

  • Recipient: Engaging Community in the Development of Low-Cost Technologies for Environmental Monitoring to Promote Environmental Health Literacy in a Low-Trust Setting: The Community-Driven Flint Project
    Jennifer S. Carrera, College of Social Science, with Community Based Organization Partners and Community Driven Flint Action Council

2023 Distinguished Partnership Award for International Community-Engaged Scholarship

  • Recipient: Community Engagement with Pastoralists on the Tibetan Plateau
    Maria Lapinski, College of Communication Arts and Sciences; John Kerr, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources; Rain Liu, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Arizona; Jinhua Zhao, College of Business, Cornell University; with the Shan Shui Conservation Center

2023 Institutional Champion Award for Community Engagement Scholarship

  • Recipient: Christopher P. Long, College of Arts and Letters and the Honors College

2023 Community Engagement Scholarship Lifetime Achievement Award

  • Recipient: Susan J. Masten, College of Engineering