Phi Kappa Phi Excellence in Innovation Award Finalists Announced

This week, the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines, the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, announced the three finalists for its 2020 Excellence in Innovation Award, according to a recent press release. The $100,000 award, given once every two years, recognizes one institution of higher learning for achievement in finding powerful answers to major local, regional, national or global challenges.

Selected by a jury of emeritus presidents and provosts, the finalists were chosen from a pool of six semifinalists representing multifaceted projects at institutions across the country. Each institution was judged on the project’s ability to achieve meaningful, quantifiable outcomes to spur systemic large-scale change.

The three institutions chosen as finalists are Nazareth College, Texas State University, and Widener University.

“The projects presented by the semifinalists in the Phi Kappa Phi Excellence in Innovation Award posed a challenge to the jury, as each represents a fine example of the innovation for which higher education is known. We are so pleased to recognize all six of these fine institutions and celebrate their excellence,” said Dr. Mary Todd, Phi Kappa Phi’s Executive Director.

The 2020 recipient will be announced Tuesday, May 26, and will receive $100,000 in tangible recognition of its best practice in response to the changes and challenges facing higher education in the 21st century.

The three semifinalist institutions receiving honorable mentions are Moravian College, the University of Houston-Downtown, and the University of Memphis.

The Phi Kappa Phi Excellence in Innovation award is part of the Honor Society’s robust awards program, which gives nearly $1 million annually to extraordinary members and students on chapter campuses through study abroad grants, dissertation fellowships, funding for post-baccalaureate development, member and chapter awards, and grants for local, national and international literacy initiatives. The Excellence in Innovation Award, first awarded in 2016 to Tulane University, is the Society’s only award for academic institutions.

For more information about the award, visit www.phikappaphi.org/innovation.