AWARDS

2017

LAS Academic Professional Award. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences established the LAS Academic Professional Awards to identify and honor selected academic professionals for their outstanding contributions to the college.

2016 

J. Frederick Miller Award.  Awarded by the University YMCA "for distinguished volunteer service by a staff or faculty member of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign or a member of the Religious Workers Association of Urbana-Champaign. The Miller Award will be given to an individual who has made significant contributions as a volunteer during his or her life in the local community.  The award recognizes direct public service to the campus or local community and efforts of organizing and delivering community service.  The award honors volunteer participation which, in the judgment of the Board of Governors of the University YMCA, reflects an expression of moral understanding and civic responsibility and stands as a model of such service to students and others in this community."

Campus Award for Excellence in Public Engagement. Award by the UIUC Office of Public Engagement for demonstrated significant individual contributions to the world, nation, state or community through distinguished university public engagement. 

2014

CIBER Summer Research Grant, UIUC. Two-month appointment for research assistant.

2013

Chancellor's Academic Professional Excellence Award, UIUC. 

2008-09

University Distinguished Teacher/Scholar. UIUC.

Project description 

The University Distinguished Teacher/Scholar is a life-time award that “honors and supports outstanding faculty members who take an active role in enhancing teaching and learning on this campus…have received significant recognition of teaching effectiveness…and have a distinguished record of scholarship, research, or creative activity.My project is a year-long series of community-university summits designed to inform our teaching based on an exchange of community and university perspectives on topics such as community service learning, entrepreneurship, leadership, undergraduate research and communication skills. 

2005

Social Entrepreneurship Award. Innovation Celebration. Sponsored by The Vice Chancellor for Research of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Champaign County Economic Development Council.

The Social Entrepreneurship award recognizes individuals who have served as change agents in our community by incorporating innovative approaches, improving systems and processes and creating sustainable solutions to reshape society and benefit humanity. These resourceful individuals go beyond the economic framework of entrepreneurship and include social value as a product of entrepreneurial endeavor. They have successfully implemented entrepreneurial principles to address social concerns.

1996

The Harriet and Charles Luckman Undergraduate Distinguished Teaching Award. Nominated by department. Supported with letters from former students. Awarded by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. UIUC.

GRANTS AND HONORS

2014

• CIBER Research Grant. "Social Media Marketing across Languages and Cultures”  

2008-09

• Community Informatics Initiative.  Seed funding fro "Reaching More Latinos: An External Grant Proposal to Use Social Media and Spanish Service Learning to Expand Services to Local and Rural Non-Profits." $6,000.

2007-08

• UIUC Research Board. “Social Entrepreneurship and Microfinance: Can Global Programs Find a Local Fit?” With Prof. Gale Summerfield. $2,691.
• Second year funding. UI Extension and Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership, College of Business UIUC. Partnership and funding to create summer student internships as a capstone experience to SPAN 202. $25,600.
• Entrepreneurship & Latino Communities Working Group. Founder of a cross-campus working group. Funded by Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership, U of I Extension, and Vice Chancellor for Public Engagement. $17,643.
• CIBER Conference Travel. $880.

2006-07

• U of I Extension and Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership, College of Business UIUC. Partnership and funding to create summer student internships as a capstone experience to SPAN 202.$25,600.
• CIBER Faculty Research Award. "Detailing Entrepreneurship, Experiential Learning and Spanish” studies discrete job-related tasks that students must perform in Spanish during an international internship in Barcelona, Spain. $4,402.
• CIBER Foreign Language Course Development Award. "Tying it all together: Development of an online module for the new business Spanish course, ‘Spanish and entrepreneurship: languages, culture and communities.’” To create WebCT quizzes in Spanish that cover the entrepreneurial theories that students read about in English for the course. $3,000.
• CIBER Faculty Development in International Business Award.$550.

2005-2006 

• CBL (Community-Based Learning) Sustainability Funding to create training materials and course pack for SPAN 232. $4560.22.
• PITA (Provost’s Initiative on Teaching Advancement) funding for “Long-Term Sustained Training for Foreign Language Professionals” to establish and implement on-line and live training sessions for sustained TA development across the Spanish curriculum. Co-written with Darcy Lear. $12,893.55.
• Faculty Fellow, Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership, College of Business UIUC.Funding to redesign Spanish for Business course, refocusing curriculum toward entrepreneurship and incorporating CBL.$10,000.

2004-2005

• CIBER, Faculty Development in International Business in Spain. June 2005. $1,900.
• APDF (Academic Professional Development Fund) funding for travel to Spain for Faculty Development in International Business in Spain. “Teaching Spanish for Business: A Global Approach.” Madrid–Ávila. June 2005.$250
• Invited Participant in LASTA/ATLAS Course Innovation Teaching Circle. Directed by Sharon Scott (Liberal Arts and Sciences Teaching Academy) and Jim Witte (Applied Technologies for Learning in the Arts and Sciences).
• CBL Grant. Office of the Vice Chancellor for Public Engagement, UIUC. Used to redesign “Intensive Spoken Spanish,” incorporating community-based learning and technology. Students spend half their contact hours per week working at the East Central Illinois Refugee Mutual Assistance Center in Urbana, IL. Students reflect orally upon their service learning in digital diaries using web cameras.  $15,000. 

1995-1996

• Departmental Fellowship awarded by the Graduate Studies Committee. Relieved of one year teaching for dissertation completion.

1986-1990

• Child of Veteran’s Scholarship for Clay County, IL. Four years full tuition awarded to the one student with the highest ACT score from each county in Illinois who attends the UIUC.