The Education Partnership Award is an annual Georgia Tech award to recognize genuine and substantial partnerships between the faculty and students of Georgia Tech and the K-12 community. The award amount is $7,500 ($2,500 to be divided equally among the members of each of the three constituencies). (Please note that this award won't be given any year the judges determine there are no suitable nominations.)

Questions? Contact Carol Subiño Sullivan.

Timeline

• Packets are due by Friday, February 7, 2025 at 11:59pm.
• Award recipients will be honored at a campus celebration, date and format to be determined by the institute committee.
• Names and nomination packets of the award winners will be posted on the CTL Faculty Award website following the Faculty/Staff Honors Luncheon.
• Names of winners will be added to the Teaching Awards wall located in the Clough Undergraduate Commons.

Eligibility Criteria

• Every partnership must have at least one full-time Georgia Tech faculty member (this includes individuals with tenure-track/tenured, research, and general faculty status), at least one full-time Georgia Tech student (undergraduate or graduate student, and this student may have already graduated at the time of the nomination), and at least one full-time Georgia K-12 teacher.
• Partnerships must currently exist, work successfully, show evidence of positive impact, and be sustainable.  
• This partnership can only win the award once. (At least one member of the partnership and/or the actual project covered by the partnership must change in order to apply in future years.)
• This partnership can only apply for the award two times.

Nomination Materials

The nomination packet should be submitted electronically as a PDF through the Georgia Tech awards portal: https://gatech.infoready4.com. It should include the following items:

• Cover sheet stating the members of the partnership with the three constituencies clearly indicated. The cover sheet should be signed by all members of the partnership. Please sign and scan the sheet to include with the electronic packet.
• Statement (no more than three pages) describing the partnership. Statement should indicate how the team and project clearly satisfy the criteria listed above.
• One-page statement from each of the three constituencies stating what they have given to and what they have gained from the partnership.
• Three letters of support for your nomination.  These letters of support should be from the following individuals:
  *K-12 teacher(s) should include a letter from the principal(s) of the school(s) where the teacher(s) is/are employed.
  *Faculty member(s) should include a letter from the school chair(s) or unit head(s) where the faculty member(s) works at Tech
  *Student(s) should include a letter from the advisor(s). For doctoral students, this letter should be from a research advisor. For all other students, the letter should be from the academic advisor. (The advisor may be one of the faculty members on the team.)
• Up to 10 pages of supplementary evidence and information.

Selection Criteria

The Center for Teaching and Learning establishes a committee consisting of previous Georgia Tech educational award winners to review the nomination packets and select the winners of this award. The submission for the award is reviewed in the context of department and institutional standards. Evaluation/endorsement of the submission is provided by letters from the department chair and the individuals who have observed the education partnership. Judges will look for evidence that the partnership satisfies certain conditions, including the following:

• Mutual benefit for all constituencies.
• Impact of the partnership.
• Contribution to the partnership from all involved parties.

Winners 2024

Saad Bhamla, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Janet Standeven, Program Director, Frugal Science Academy, Elio Challita, Postdoctoral Researcher, Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University (nomination packet)

In 2017, Standeven, a biotech teacher at Lambert High School, faced equipment limitations for her iGEM team’s synthetic biology projects. She contacted Bhamla, a postdoc at Stanford’s Prakash Lab who was innovating ultra-low-cost diagnostic tools. This sparked a collaboration as Bhamla transitioned to Georgia Tech. When Challita joined Bhamla’s lab, he contributed his mechanical engineering skills and drive to mentor high school students. This partnership has produced frugal devices, published papers with high school lead authors, and established a National Institute of Health-funded Frugal Science Academy at Georgia Tech, guiding high school scholars toward scientific careers.

Previous Winners

2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
not awarded

2019 (Nomination Packet)

Dr. Mary Hudachek-Buswell, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

LeAnne Cheatham, Willis Road Elementary School, Coweta County School System

Ruchi Banerjee, Undergraduate Student, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Mary Hudachek-Buswell, LeAnne Cheatham, and Ruchi Banerjee came together in 2015 to create a program to incorporate computer science and coding into the curriculum at Willis Road Elementary School. The Computing and Engineering with LEGO® and Scratch (CELS), is a three-year program that is the only of its kind and has been pivotal in developing young children’s comprehension of computer science. The program creates an opportunity for Tech students, like Ruchi Banerjee, to make a lasting impact on the education of elementary school students and gives and gives Willis Road’s teachers, like LeAnne Cheatham, the opportunity to expose their students and themselves to new, exciting content.

2018 (Nomination Packet)
Frank James Stewart, Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences
Darren Joshua Parris, Ph.D. Student, School of Biological Sciences
Jennifer Jones, Chemistry Teacher, Rockdale County High School

2016, 2017
Not awarded

2015 (Nomination packet)
Jeannette Yen, professor, Biology
Justin Craddick, graduate student, Biology
Gilberte Pascal, founding principal, Kindezi Old Fourth Ward

2014  (Nomination Packet)
Eric A. Gaucher, associate professor, Biology
Ryan N. Randall, research coordinator, Biology
Janetta Greenwood, science teacher, Dunwoody High School

2013
Baratunde Cola, Mechanical Engineering
Carol A. Colatrella, Literature, Media, and Communication/Women, Science, and Technology
Mary Lynn Realff, Materials Science and Engineering/Women, Science, and Technology

2008
Samuel Graham Jr.,  assistant professor, Mechanical Engineering
Adam P. Christensen, doctoral candidate, Mechanical Engineering
Doug Edwards, magnet coordinator and science teacher, Westlake High School

2007
Kim Cobb, assistant professor, School of Earth and Atmospheric Science
Solona Hollis, science teacher, Miller Grove High School
Christy Hodges, science teacher, Miller Grove High School
Kathleen Salome, undergraduate student, Earth and Atmospheric Science

2006
Jeff Davis, associate professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Tom Collins, senior research engineer, GTRI
Jeff Rosen, technology teacher, Wheeler High School
Eric Liu, Satya Bhan, Simon Chen, Michael Rivera, and James Holland: Electrical Engineering students and officers on the ECE Student Faculty Committee

2005
Joseph LeDoux, assistant professor, Biomedical Engineering
Cindy Jung, graduate student, Biomedical Engineering