ANNUAL TIMELINE

• August-September: Revise annual process, forms, documents, etc.
• October 15: Call for nominations via Salesforce and State Up-to-Date
• October 15-December 1: Nomination period.
• January-February: ExCEL Review Committee selects winner(s), notifications sent to all nominees, State Up-to-Date winner and luncheon announcement.
• March: Preparation for award luncheon.
• April: ExCEL Award luncheon.

OVERVIEW

The SDSU Excellence in Community Engaged Learning (ExCEL) Award recognizes outstanding faculty and community partner contributions to community engaged teaching and learning. For the purposes of this award, community engaged teaching/learning may be contextualized in ways consistent with the definitions as published in the SDSU Curriculum Guide. Examples include: 

• Community Engaged (CE) courses
• Service Learning (SL) courses
• Innovative clinical and field placement programs offered for academic credit.
• Local, regional or international community engaged research or projects that, while not tied to a specific course, allow for or support students to co-enroll in a General Studies or department-level course that offers academic credit for the students’ community engaged work.

The following are criteria for review. Successful nominations will communicate effectively the project's capacity to:

• Develop and maintain a reciprocal/mutually beneficial relationship with the community partner(s).
• Engage students and learning in meaningful ways.
• Have a positive impact on the SDSU campus and local, regional, and/or international communities.
• Demonstrate depth, pervasiveness and innovation.

2026 AWARD CYCLE

Nomination Period

October 15 to December 1, 2025

Winner Announced

February 2026

Award Amount

$5,000

Number of Awards

A minimum of one award winner will be selected. Honorable mentions or runner’s up may be selected, and may receive a nominal financial award.

Allocation of Funds

Fund transfer will occur between July 1 and August 15, 2026.

Fund Use

Funds may be used to support any aspect of their community-based work as long as it complies with rules relating to the use of State of CA Funds. Funds must be used by the end of the 2026-2027 academic year.

Who May Nominate?

• Self-nominations by SDSU faculty/staff are highly encouraged.
• Deans, Department Chairs, School Directors and other administrators may also nominate and/or encourage faculty/staff for this award.
• Courses/projects of all scope and size are encouraged to apply. 

How to Nominate?

Nominators must complete the ExCEL Award Nomination Form. A nomination letter alone is not sufficient. In the nomination form, nominators are required to:

• Identify one faculty/staff member to serve as the contact person/nominee for the nomination. 
• Identify the community partner organization, as well as a contact person (with valid email) from that organization. Nominated projects with more than one community partner will list all community partners, and identify one specific community partner as the "contact" community partner.  
• Provide detailed information about the project purpose, impact, funding, related research, and more.
• Letters of support: Academic Deans, Department Chairs, School Directors,College Honors & Awards Committees and other administrators may submit a letter of support on behalf of a nominated course/project. (optional)
• Photograph/caption: one (1) photo that is representative of the community engaged work, along with an appropriate caption. (optional)

What Is required of the SDSU ExCEL Award winner(s)?

• The contact person/nominee must be willing to give a talk about their community engaged work, and community engagement in general, at the annual SDSU ExCEL Award event in April of the same academic year they are nominated. The contact person/nominee is encouraged to include other project contributors, including community partners and affiliated students, in that presentation.
• Community partners identified in the nomination form should be willing to complete a brief survey. 
• The contact person/nominee must identify a department/college level budget coordinator/analyst/manager who can: a) provide an Oracle account string where the award funds can be transferred, and b) support the management of the funds to support the awardee(s) community engaged work.