2019-20 Outstanding Graduate Assistant Awards ARHU Deadline

The Graduate School invites colleges to choose graduate students for Outstanding Graduate Assistant Awards for exemplary achievement as a GA in AY 2019-20. The Graduate School will make approximately 80 Outstanding Graduate Assistant Awards annually and will recognize the awardees for 2019-20 at the Annual Fellowship and Award Celebration in May 2020.

ARHU may nominate up to 10 graduate assistants for this award, all of whom will receive the award from the graduate school. While the award does not carry a cash prize, it conveys the honor of being named among the top 2% of campus GAs in a given year. Award winners receive a credit for mandatory fees for the spring 2020 semester.

To be eligible for this award, GAs must be currently enrolled Master’s or Doctoral students holding at least a half-time graduate assistantship (TA, RA, AA) for the full 2019-2020 academic year.

ARHU is soliciting nominations from the chairs of departments. Here are the instructions for submitting nominations to the ARHU Graduate Fellowships Committee:

• Each unit may nominate one graduate assistant for every 20 graduate assistants employed, up to a maximum of two. If the unit nominates two students, please note a ranking order.
• The awards will be made in three categories: Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant, Outstanding Graduate Research Assistant, and Outstanding Graduate Administrative Assistant. The award criteria for each category is available here.
• Nominators must complete the Outstanding Assistant Award Nomination Sheet for each nomination and submit it to the college as a single PDF to Ashley Richerson Miller at arichers@umd.edu.
• ARHU GAs working in units outside of ARHU are eligible for this award. If you are aware of an outstanding GA from your unit who works for another campus entity, please consider contacting their supervisor to help draft the nominating paragraph.

The deadline for receipt of nominations to the ARHU Dean’s office is Monday, December 2, 2019. The college will then submit their selections to the Graduate School by Friday, December 6, 2019.

Further information and the nomination sheet are available here. Please direct questions to Robyn Kotzker, Assistant Director for the Office of Funding Opportunities (rkotzker@umd.edu, 301-405-0281).