Civic Engagement Awards

The Center for Civic Engagement celebrates Illinois State University's core vale of civic engagement by annually recognizing individuals and organizations for their outstanding contributions to civic engagement. The Civic Engagement Awards were first presented in 2017 by the American Democracy Project. Recipients are honored each year at the University's Civic Engagement Celebration in April.

2023 Civic Engagement Award winners named

Individuals and groups across the campus and community were honored with the 2023 Civic Engagement Awards on April 11 as part of Illinois State University’s annual Civic Engagement Celebration. The event was hosted by the Center for Civic Engagement (CCE).

Illinois State University Interim President Dr. Aondover Tarhule assisted in the presentations in eight categories. Winners were announced by Acting Provost Dr. Ani Yazedjian, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Danielle Miller-Schuster, and CCE Director Dr. Katy Strzepek.

“We had a record-breaking 29 nominations this year,” Strzepek said. “So many people demonstrated an outstanding commitment to civic engagement, including faculty, staff, students, and community partners. Each person’s contributions and commitment matter. Illinois State is truly committed to civic engagement.”

Unit Award

University Galleries received the Unit Award. This award recognizes a unit or department that has developed a civic engagement initiative or activity reflecting the department’s commitment to the public good.

University Galleries is a creative laboratory for Illinois State University faculty and students, community members, and visiting artists. All exhibitions and events are free and open to the public. This year staff, graduate assistants and undergraduate student assistants engaged in numerous civic engagement efforts:

Partnering with the Boys & Girls Club through ART204 and hosting a pop-up exhibit of the kids’ art.
Partnering with Normal Community High School’s experimental ensemble for which the students composed and performed their scores inspired by the Galleries exhibit by Nazafarin Lotfi.
Presenting art-making workshops to two area retirement communities.
Hosting Being and Belonging, a film screening of newly commissioned works for World AIDS Day.
Leading tours of the galleries for schools, community organizations, and Illinois State classes.

Interdisciplinary Team

The Center for Mathematics, Science, and Technology (CeMaST) received the Interdisciplinary Team Award. This award recognizes a group, team, or initiative that is a multidepartment effort of a civic engagement initiative or activity. This recognition acknowledges that civic engagement has no boundaries, and that collaboration is often required.

Team members are Rebekka Darner, Toddy Eddy, Matthew Hagaman, Amanda Fain, Olesya Courier, Rachel Sparks, Ashley Waring, Courtney Ossola, Kate Edler, Kate Evans, Kendy Reyes-Cruz, Jeffery Barrett, Chris Merrill, and George Rutherford.

CeMaST facilitates multiple civic engagement activities in service to its mission to empower, conduct, and support science, technology, engineering, and math education, and scholarship across the K-16 continuum. CeMaST fosters energy literacy skills throughout Illinois by implementing the Smart Grid for All curriculum through partnerships with schools, park districts, and other community-based organizations.

CeMaST also partners with several local community-based organizations each summer to deliver STEM camps. Partners include the Unity Community Center, Western Avenue Community Center, YWCA, and Bloomington School District 87. These camps are led by Illinois State preservice teachers who learn a more sophisticated view of how they must bring humility and an open mind to their teaching careers.

CeMaST also supports community-engaged research by helping the University’s researchers realize the broader impact of their research through outreach to specific communities.

Centering EDI

Hostile Terrain ’94 was recognized with the Centering EDI Award. This award recognizes an individual or group who has developed a civic engagement project that exemplifies the center’s vision of a more just and equitable world cultivated through the co-creation of knowledge, mutually beneficial partnerships, and collective action.

The winners in this category include exemplary faculty, staff, students, registered student organizations, and community partners who formed an interdisciplinary partnership that highlighted a critical social justice issue and called on our community to act for positive social change.

Team members are Maura Toro-Morn, Frank Beck, Matt Himley, Livia Stone, Alejandro Enriquez, Charlotte Alvarez, MK Panek, and Hattie Parsons.

Hostile Terrain ’94 is a participatory art installation created by faculty and students in Sociology and Anthropology; Latin American and Latino/a Studies; and Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, along with The Immigration Project, the Geography Club, and the Society of Anthropology students.

The exhibit honored the lives of those who died along the United States/Mexico border and asked participants to consider the human impact of public policies. Students in multiple disciplines learned about the brutal effects of the policy of deterrence, which forced individuals crossing the border onto treacherous routes.

Students, faculty, and staff spent many hours preparing the exhibit, which involved writing the name, age, cause of death, body composition, and longitude/latitude of the location of each body found in the desert on a toe tag and placing it on the exact location it was found on a map on the wall. Participants helped ensure that the lives of 3,200 individuals who died along the border would not be forgotten.

Faculty Award

Dr. Will Lewis was honored with the Faculty Award. This award recognizes a faculty member who has contributed significantly to incorporate civic engagement into their teaching, scholarly and creative productivity, and/or professional and community service. This recognition honors the faculty member’s commitment to the public good and the advancement of civic engagement within their discipline.

Lewis, an assistant professor of Information Systems in the School of Information Technology, created outstanding opportunities for K-12 students from underrepresented backgrounds to enhance their understanding of the field of science, technology, engineering, and math. He developed workshops with Bloomington Junior High School on mobile application development and 3D printing and with the Boys & Girls Club robotics club.

He designed experiences for teen girls from minoritized backgrounds at the Western Avenue Community Center that will be used in the future for a summer camp. In the pilot program, teens were given Illinois State student peer mentors and campus tours and built an electronic picture frame by programming a Raspberry Pi and using 3D printers.

Registered Student Organization

Fix It Friday was honored with the Registered Student Organization (RSO) award. This award recognizes an RSO that has been significantly involved in civic engagement at Illinois State or in the broader community. These experiences prepare RSO members to be informed and engaged global citizens who will promote and further the goals of society.

Fix It Friday members set up sewing machines on campus and within the surrounding community to offer free basic sewing, mending, and clothing repair services. The mobile repair shop has been at the Carle BroMenn Resale Boutique, the Alamo II, the Normal Activity and Recreation Center, and Crossroads Fair Trade Goods and Gifts. The organization also works on community projects in the Office of Sustainability.

By providing a free clothing repair service, students practice their sewing skills while also reducing the amount of textile waste in the landfill.

Fix It Friday student coordinator Hannah Oesch is working with Fix It Friday volunteers to address menstrual equity through The Pad Project by assembling reusable sanitary pads for girls worldwide.

Staff Award

Kelly Hasselbring, office administrator in the Department of Health Sciences, was honored with the Staff Award. This award recognizes a staff member who is significantly involved in civic engagement activities at Illinois State University and/or in the broader community. This recognition honors staff members who contribute to the public good and embody the core value of civic engagement personally and/or professionally.

She has served as a trip advisor for Illinois State’s Alternative Breaks four times, supporting students and volunteering with them on projects such as cleaning up the Mississippi River, assisting at an elephant sanctuary, working with women with HIV/AIDS, and assisting at a school in Kenya, and working on reforestation in the Andes Mountains.

Hasselbring coordinates the Socktober sock drive, leads card writing campaigns to benefit residents at the McLean County Nursing Home, and is working to earn the Green Office Certification by instituting departmental policies in support of recycling, composting, zero waste events, and increased environmental awareness.

She volunteers at Miller Park Zoo and on political campaigns. She and her family built and installed a Little Free Library in their neighborhood, which she stocks by shopping at a local literacy nonprofit.

Student Award

Sanhawich Meateanuwat received the Student Award, which recognizes a student who is significantly involved in civic engagement activities at Illinois State University and/or in the broader community, embodying the ideal of an informed and engaged global citizen.

Meateanuwat is a third-year Master of Fine Arts directing student and is passionate about using theatre as a tool for activism.

Human relationships drew them to theatre. But recently, the political situation in their home country of Thailand has convinced them that social structures fundamentally impact how we form relationships. They believe if we want better relationships, sometimes it needs to start with better social structures and living conditions.

From that fundamental shift in thought, they found an interest in using their directing craft to create dynamic theatre that supports social movements and reflects and asks questions that impact the larger society, especially in the context of cultural diversity.

They are committed to the belief that their work should be a voice for the oppressed and provoke empathy and that theatre can help people imagine a better society and inspire them to change it together. As a director, Sanhawich seeks to flip Western narratives and amplify contemporary global truth.

Community Partner Award

The Normal Public Library received the Community Partner Award. This award recognizes a community organization that is significantly involved with Illinois State University. This recognition honors organizations and individuals who contribute to student learning and support student engagement with the community in a curricular or cocurricular setting.

The library is a beacon of community support as it addresses community engagement and literacy and the social determinants of health. The library was a critical partner this year with the Department of Health Sciences and Milner Library to co-host the International Day of Peace in September. This international effort celebrates the United Nations’ call for a global end to conflict. The library also partners with Illinois State classes to host service-learning projects. It is also home to the University’s students who volunteer through Partners in Reading.

Friend of Civic Engagement

Ryan Smith, director of University Assessment Services, has been honored with the Friend of Civic Engagement Award. While the other Civic Engagement Awards come from campuswide nominations and are determined by an independent selection committee, the Friend of Civic Engagement award was created by the Center for Civic Engagement staff to recognize those who are going above and beyond to help the staff fulfill their mission.

Smith has provided support for the center’s assessment projects, including acting as a key member of the Optimal College Town Assessment steering committee. He provided support for other research and assessment projects and assisted with the Institutional Review Board process for the National Survey of Student Engagement. A dedicated member of the Civic Engagement advisory board, Smith regularly volunteers to assist with the center’s service projects and over the years has assisted with projects at Sunnyside Community Gardens and Holiday Helper.