Student Local Section of the Year Award 

 

history of the award


In 1998 the Local Sections Council (LSC) of AIHA agreed to continue their objective of promoting the formation of Student Local Sections at academic institutions with qualified industrial hygiene programs.  In addition, the LSC understood that a process was needed to ensure that the student local sections, year after year, remain active and effective in the encouragement of student participation and continue their promotion of industrial hygiene education, research, and professionalism in a quality manner. 

One approach to achieve this objective was an annual award program to recognize and encourage the activities of officially established AIHA student local sections and to honor a section that made a significant contribution towards furthering excellence in industrial hygiene education, research, and community awareness during the academic year.

AWARD DESCRIPTION


A $1,000 award will be presented by AIHA to the winning student section during the annual Volunteer Recognition Reception at AIHce.  To further publicize the award and its recipient, the winning section and its accomplishments will be featured in a subsequent issue of The Synergist. 

A panel comprised of members from the Local Sections Council will select the winning student section based on a thorough review of all applications received by Friday, May 4, 2012.  It is intended that the monetary award be designated for the section’s general fund to help cover costs for chapter meetings, promotional activities, dinners, printed materials, etc. 

Please note that a student section cannot win the award for two consecutive years.

JUDGING CRITERIA

The following criteria will be utilized to select the winning student section:

  • Types and quality of section meetings devoted to furthering the industrial hygiene education, research, and professionalism
  • Quality and scope of applied research activities sponsored by, or participated in, by the student section
  • Type and quality of community and / or campus activities sponsored by, or participated in, by the student section
  • Scope and quality of endorsed activities by the student section’s faculty advisor and appropriate sponsoring local section officers
  • Percentage of eligible students belonging to the student section and the percent (or amount) of student members attending each Student Section meetings
  • Presence and / or quality of job placement activities (career nights, resume books, sponsoring student section attendance at AIHce)
  • Degree of participation of student section members at sponsoring local section meetings and other functions (may be geography dependent)

Award procedure

  •  An application must be submitted in accordance with the general requirements of the AIHA Student Local Section of the Year Award Application Form by May 4, 2012 of the current academic year.
  • The student local section faculty advisor will be responsible for explaining the awards criteria, providing guidance, and attesting in writing to the accuracy of the application.
  • The president of the student local section, as the representative of the section, shall sign the application along with the faculty advisor and president or duly designated officer of the sponsoring AIHA local section
  • Only section activities of the current academic year are to be submitted on the application.  Activities occurring after May 4, 2012 submission deadline should be listed in the future tense and described as fully as possible. 
  • Applications for Student Local Section of the Year can be submitted electronically to tla@aiha.org 
  • The award selection panel shall make a decision of the winning student section by May 25th.  The panel will be exclusively responsible for selecting the winning student section and their decision shall be final.

 Recent winners
 

  • 2011: Utah State University
  • 2010: Colorado State University (Rocky Mountain Student Section) & 
                Murray State University
  • 2009: Purdue University 
  • 2008: University of Arizona & Murray State University
  • 2007: University of Illinois-Chicago IHSA
  • 2006: Murray State University
  • 2005: University of Michigan
  • 2004: Murray State University