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Impact Awards shine light on North Carolina research

The image of the graduate student has been unfairly defined over the years in books, on television and on the silver screen. A spectacled person locked away in a laboratory or stationed in the back corner of a dusty library with his or her nose in a book seems to be the stereotype. One recently established award, though, is bringing the outstanding work of graduate students along with their stodgy image out into the light.

In 2004, the Graduate Education Advancement Board at UNC-CH established the Impact Awards with the goal of recognizing graduate students whose research provides special benefits to the citizens of North Carolina. The result has been that a dedicated group of students is finally getting its due.

“The recognition may eventually aid my work if it helps attract attention from publishers and scholars,” says Seth Kotch, a doctoral candidate in History who won a 2007 Impact Award. “The money certainly helped a great deal and the recognition is a great motivator for graduate students whose backs aren’t exactly aching from patting.”

In 2003, as the Graduate School celebrated its 100th anniversary, it first honored a select group of students whose work was focused on North Carolina. These Centennial Awards were so successful that then-GEAB co-chair David McNelis and the other members decided to adopt the awards, rename them the GEAB Impact Awards, and finance these annual awards with personal contributions from the membership. GEAB member Michael Harpold was instrumental in getting the awards started as the first chair of the Impact Awards Committee.

“In a state where the motto is ‘To be, rather than to seem,’ it is perhaps easy to lose sight of the many ways in which graduate students and their research contribute to the welfare of the state,” Harpold says. “The Impact Awards are designed to recognize specific graduate research that addresses economic and societal issues of importance to North Carolina.”

Since 2003, 68 students have been honored with these awards. Previous Impact Award winners’ projects include a graduate student’s original theatrical production, research on the state’s business history, a study of high school athletic injuries and a novel approach to targeting cancer cells. The awards seem to be serving their purpose.

“As a native North Carolinian, I like to think that the awards will help encourage people to shape their research in ways that will benefit the state,” says Stephen Whitlow, a 2007 Impact Award winner in City and Regional Planning. “They certainly have influenced me.”

The Impact Awards’ influence has not been limited to the Carolina campus or the state, though. If imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery, then other graduate programs are beginning to honor Carolina’s initiative.

For a number of years, Dean Linda Dykstra, Associate Dean Sandra Hoeflich, and Development Director Mary Anne Larson have presented a fundraising workshop and shared other Carolina initiatives at the Council of Graduate Schools’ annual conference. “Many of the attendees — primarily graduate deans from around the country — immediately come up to ask for more information about the GEAB Impact Awards and say that they plan to start a similar program at their universities,” says Dykstra. Hoeflich adds that Appalachian State and UNC Charlotte have already followed suit, implementing their own similar awards programs.

Other universities are learning what people at Carolina have known for years. Graduate students conduct research that provides direct benefits to the citizens of their states.

“It’s really amazing and I am pleased that a public university like UNC is encouraging these kinds of projects that will assist the state,” Kotch says. “The financial support is essential, too.” • Joshua D. Meyer