Honors College Award for Distinguished Contributions to Honors Students

Awardees will be announced soon for 2026.

 

The Honors College Award for Distinguished Contributions to Honors Students is given annually to a faculty or staff member (including specialists and visiting faculty) who has made exceptional contributions to Honors College students through teaching, advising, or mentoring.

Such contributions might include:

  • Designing or teaching Honors classes or sections
  • Offering Honors options
  • Providing Honors advising
  • Mentoring professorial assistants
  • Other exceptional efforts

Awardees receive a certificate, a plaque housed in Eustace-Cole Hall, and a $2,000 honorarium.

Nomination Requirements

  • Alumni, faculty, staff, and students are eligible to send nominations for this award
  • Faculty and staff whose primary appointment is in the Honors College are not eligible to earn this award
  • Must nominate a person who currently works at MSU
  • Only one nomination per submission form (you may nominate multiple people, but each will need a separate submission form)

How to Nominate

Nomination forms were due Friday, March 6, 2026. The form for the 2027 cycle will be shared in the fall.

If you have trouble submitting the form, please email your form responses to jdesloov@msu.edu. You may also contact her with any questions.

Past Recipients

2025: Natalie Phillips, Associate Professor, College of Arts & Letters

2024: Deborah Margolis, Middle East Studies Bibliographer, MSU Libraries, Amy Simon, Assistant Professor, College of Social Science, Lynn Wolff, Associate Professor, College of Arts & Letters, and Steve Weiland, Professor, College of Education

2023: Jiying Ling, Associate Professor, College of Nursing

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2021: Antoinette C. Tessmer, Associate Professor of Finance, Broad College of Business

2019: Steve Safferman, Associate Professor, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

2018: Jenifer Fenton, Associate Professor, Food Science and Human Nutrition

2017: Ryan Black, Associate Professor, Political Science

2016: John Waller, Associate Professor, History

2015: Jeanne Wald, Professor, Mathematics

2014: Natalie Phillips, Assistant Professor, English

2013: Cristina Schmitt, Associate Professor, Linguistics

2012: Charlie Bokemeier, Professor, Accounting

2011: Tess Tavormina, Professor of English, Asst. Dean, Lyman Briggs College and Cornelius Barry, Assistant Professor, Horticulture

2010: Joey Houston, Professor, Physics and Astronomy

2009: Stephen Esquith, Dean, Residential College in the Arts and Humanities and Katherine O’Sullivan See, Professor, Social Relations

2008: David Bailey, Professor, History

2007: Charles Ostrom, Professor, Political Science and Harold Sollenberger, Professor Emeritus, Accounting and Information Systems

2006: Elizabeth Booth, Academic Specialist, Finance and Sandi Smith, Professor, Communication

2005: Richard Zinman, Professor, James Madison College

2004: Byron Brown, Professor, Economics and Kelly Klump, Professor, Psychology

2003: Paulette Stenzel, Professor, International Business Law

2002: Edward Ingraham, Director Emeritus, Lyman Briggs School

2001: Michael Schechter, Professor, James Madison College

2000: Robert Root-Bernstein, Professor, Physiology

1999: Herb Josephs, Professor Emeritus, Romance & Classical Languages and James Zacks, Professor, Psychology

Recipient of the Sustained Commitment to Honors Students Award:

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