West Virginia University (WVU) has been recognized for its outstanding community work by being named a regional winner of the 2024 W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award. This recognition was given by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU).
As a regional winner, WVU will now compete for the national C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Scholarship Award, which will be announced in November. Other finalists include East Carolina University, the University of Minnesota, and Oregon State University.
Kristi Wood Turner, the Assistant Dean of Engagement and Director of the WVU Center for Community Engagement, expressed the university’s excitement, saying, “We’re very honored to be a finalist for this award. This recognition shows how important our community work is in helping our students learn and making a positive impact in West Virginia.”
Since 2007, the APLU, along with the Engagement Scholarship Consortium and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, has recognized public universities that excel in community engagement. The award honors schools that have reworked their programs to better partner with and benefit their communities. The national award is named after C. Peter Magrath, who was the APLU president from 1992 to 2005.
APLU President Mark Becker congratulated the regional winners, saying, “Community engagement is a crucial part of what public universities do, and we’re proud to highlight the work these schools are doing to address important challenges in their communities.”
The awards also recognize other universities with standout community projects. This year, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Purdue University are being honored for their exceptional community engagement efforts.
Both the finalists for the Magrath Award and the universities with standout projects will be featured at the 2024 Engagement Scholarship Consortium’s Annual Conference later this year. A team of experts from public research universities selected the regional winners, and a second team will choose the national winner after presentations at the 2024 National Engagement Scholarship Conference.
The C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Scholarship Award comes with a sculpture and a $20,000 prize. The other three regional winners will each receive a $5,000 prize to continue their community work.
