AIHA STUDENT LOCAL SECTION OF THE YEAR AWARD

Award Summary Fact Sheet

Background:

Since the inception of the Student Local Section (SLS) formation process in 1989, 33 student local sections of AIHA have been established at colleges and universities across the United States, with several new student local sections being formed each year. 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.

The concept of creating an AIHA Student Local Section of the Year Award was endorsed by the AIHA Board of Directors at its March 1996 business meeting and funding for the award was approved by the board at its May 1996 business meeting. Also in May, at the annual Local Sections Council business meeting, the award concept along with a model implementation process was put to a vote among attending local section and student local section members. The original motion "to endorse and support the development of the new local section award" was approved by 31 members and opposed by none.

Award Description:

A $1,000 award will be presented by AIHA to the winning student section during the annual Volunteer Recognition Reception during 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 April 15, 2010. 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:

1. Types and quality of section meetings devoted to furthering the industrial hygiene education, research, and professionalism
2. Quality and scope of applied research activities sponsored by, or participated in, by the student section
3. Type and quality of community and / or campus activities sponsored by, or participated in, by the student section
4. Scope and quality of endorsed activities by the student section’s faculty advisor and appropriate sponsoring local section officers
5. Percentage of eligible students belonging to the student section and the percent (or amount) of student members attending each Student Section meetings
6. Quality of the student section newsletter
7. Presence and / or quality of job placement activities (career nights, resume books, sponsoring student section attendance at AIHce)
8. Financial stability of the student section and the presence and / or quality of revenue-producing activities
9. 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 April 15, 2010 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 the April 15th submission deadline should be listed in the future tense and described as fully as possible. A minimum of six (6) copies of the application form should be submitted to:

  AIHA Local Sections Council
  American Industrial Hygiene Association
  2700 Prosperity Avenue, Suite 250
  Fairfax, VA 22031
  

• The award selection panel shall make a decision of the winning student section by May 14th. The panel will be exclusively responsible for selecting the winning student section and their decision shall be final.