Graduate Student of the Month Award
To download a PDF version of this information, click here.
Click here to read about our current Grad Student of the Month, or you can view our past winners.
About the award
The Graduate and Professional Student Organization (GSPO) and The University Graduate School (TUGS) have teamed up to formally recognize an outstanding graduate student each month. Students are nominated by faculty and staff from within their department, and a competitive review process decides who will be highlighted each month. We strive to recognize students who have contributed to the graduate community in a unique way and are exemplary within their respective academic field.
Because the graduate student body at Indiana University comprises a diverse body of schools and departments, the Graduate Student of the Month judging committee decided to offer awards in three different areas: research, community involvement, and teaching. We will recognize one Graduate Student of the Month (GSotM) award recipient every month.
Only IU faculty and staff may nominate graduate students for the award. Nominations can be submitted at any time. If a nominee does not win the award in the month that he or she is nominated, the nomination will roll over to the next month, and continue to roll over unless the student wins the award.
Nominations will be graded based on the criteria below. Nominators should specify which award track (or tracks) they want the nominee to be considered under. The GSotM Judging Committee is composed of the GPSO Communications Coordinator and a small selection of GPSO Assembly Members. Each committee member will grade each nomination based on the criteria below. The final score for each nomination will be the average of the scores from each member of the GSotM Judging Committee.
The GSotM Judging Committee will send the name of each month’s winner to the staff at TUGS, who will then conduct an interview with the winner and publish an article about the winner on the University Graduate School blog. The GSotM award winners will also be publicized on the GPSO website, Facebook page, and weekly newsletter.
Submitting a nomination
To submit a nomination, please review the criteria below, and then complete our online form.
Judging criteria
The judging criteria for each award track are as follows:
TRACK 1: RESEARCH
|
CATEGORY |
EXPLANATION |
POINTS |
|
Degree
of advancement and impact of research interests |
Has the
student won research-related awards or honors (grants, internal/external
awards, patents, invitations to present at a conference or association)? Is
the student’s research innovative, groundbreaking, or unique? Does the
student’s work have positive/meaningful impact on the discipline? Will the
student’s work make people think or feel differently? |
___ / 5 |
|
Success
in discipline |
Does
the student have experience or other accomplishments that contribute to his
or her success (e.g., field experience, lab experience, publications, etc.)? |
___ / 5 |
|
TOTAL: ___ / 10 |
||
TRACK 2: COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
|
CATEGORY |
EXPLANATION |
POINTS |
|
Involvement
in the IU community |
Does
the student volunteer in the IU graduate community at large and/or within his
or her department? Does the student demonstrate excellence in required involvement
in the IU community? Does the student have any mentorship or leadership
positions within the IU community? |
___ / 5 |
|
Involvement
outside of IU |
Does
the student participate in voluntary activities outside of the IU community?
Does he or she have any mentorship or leadership roles outside of the IU
community? |
___ / 5 |
|
TOTAL: ___ / 10 |
||
TRACK 3: TEACHING
|
CATEGORY |
EXPLANATION |
POINTS |
|
Instructor
effectiveness |
Is the
student a successful associate instructor? Do faculty and/or students respond
positively to the student’s teaching abilities? Do students exceed
expectations in the class the student teaches? |
___ / 5 |
|
Teaching
methods |
Does
the student use innovative or otherwise effective teaching methods? Does the
student recognize when his or her students are failing to comprehend the
material, then adjust his or her methods to increase
comprehension? |
___ / 5 |
|
TOTAL: ___ / 10 |
||
