Education Awards, 2024-2025

Departmental Named Awards Departmental Named Awards are special awards created by departments to recognize students' specific achievements. Each award has its own criteria and significance, as explained below, and students are chosen by departmental faculty.

Alice Smith Memorial Award

Alice Smith, a Chicago Teachers College alumna, a Charter Alumni Board Member and a Chicago Board of Education Physical Education Supervisor, established this award to honor undergraduate majors in Health, Physical Education and Recreation who have demonstrated excellence in their field experience and promise in future research and practice. The student will receive $100 dollars.

Brian Jasien

 

Best Student Teacher in Special Education
This award is for the best student teacher in the graduate Special Education program in the Department of Advanced Studies in Education.
Anthony Bond
Zorriante Broan

 

The Brenda Lacey Cunningham Memorial Scholarship
Brenda Lacey Cunningham served as a passionate and caring educator and principal in CPS for 32 years, who devoted herself to a lifelong journey of learning at Chicago State University that spanned decades. She earned a B.S. in Early Childhood and Elementary Education from CSU in 1982, a M.A. in Educational Leadership and Administration from CSU in 2003, and will receive a posthumous Doctorate of Education degree from CSU in May 2025. Her family established this scholarship to honor her passion for learning and her legacy of service. 
Student(s) to be named

Highest State Test Score in Special Education
This award is for the student who has achieved the highest state test score in their cohort in the graduate Special Education program in the Department of Advanced Studies in Education.
Elisa Richard

The HEPER Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Health Education and Physical Education Scholarship
The HEPER Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Health Education and Physical Education Scholarship in the amount of $500 is presented to an undergraduate or graduate student in the Health Education or Physical Education Program who has shown academic excellence, outstanding achievement and is currently employed in the Chicago Public Schools.
Enrique Cervantes

The Isamae Wilkes Mallet Memorial Scholarship
With her Master of Science in Education from CSU, Isamae Wilkes Mallett Bowie ‘71 served in the Chicago Public Schools for 38 years as a teacher, director of libraries, and assistant principal. Before her passing, she expressed her vision to educate generations to come. Her family created Mae's Boutique, to use the proceeds from selling her prized possessions, to establish a scholarship at Chicago State for outstanding students pursuing a career in elementary education.
Student(s) to be named

 

 

Departmental Honor & Merit Awards Departmental Merit and Honors Awards are presented to undergraduate students chosen by each department in recognition of the students’ high academic achievement in their particular disciplines. Departments with graduate programs may also present graduate awards to graduate students chosen by the department in recognition of the students’ high academic achievement in their particular fields.