Teaching Award Winners

Professor of Landscape Architecture, Dr. Noah Billig, receives the Outstanding Contributions to Service Learning 
Teaching Award (2023-2024). Award presented by Dr. Lisa Bowers, Director of the Service Learning Initiative.

The purpose of the Outstanding Contributions to Service Learning Teaching Award is to recognize teaching in service learning that has positively impacted students and the community. The award is presented to a course instructor (or co-instructors) who has demonstrated the ability to enrich both course content and the community through the application of service-learning pedagogy.

The winners of the Outstanding Contributions to Service Learning Teaching Award are:

Academic Year	Faculty	Achievement
2023-2024	Noah Billig	Working with local schools, non-profits, cities and underrepresented groups through designing and planning places of ecological literacy and environmental justice.
2022-2023	Raquel Castro Salas	Working with Springdale elementary schools and University of Arkansas students to strengthen youth biliteracy and Spanish language proficiency across Northwest Arkansas.
2021-2022	Rogelio Garcia Contreras	Working with organizations, non-profits, businesses, corporations and government entities to assess, design and implement viable solutions that address the local manifestation of global challenges.
2020-2021	Laura Gray	Working with community partners to identify, research and move forward solutions-based ideas to challenges that students connect to and care deeply about--and working with Washington Regional to discuss patient health goals with a team of medical experts in order to create practical classroom communications.
2019-2020	Hanna Jensen	Working with local medical facilities, clinics, and hospitals to increase student engagement in team-based projects based on identified clinical needs of patients post-completion of clinical rotations.
2018-2019	Kathi Jogan	Working with multiple licensed equine assisted activities and therapies organizations across NWA to gain an understanding of what makes EAAT effective and what makes the horse a good therapeutic partner.
2017-2018	Tim Cavell	Working with Springdale high schools to raise awareness of school bullying and tackle the issue through youth mentoring. This program is part of his Peer Safety Project.
2016-2017	Juan Bustamante	Working to foster a connection between students and the field by collaborating with local community organizations to establish community-based research partnerships e.g. NWA Workers Justice Center, Arkansas United Community Coalition, OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology.
2015-2016	Casey Kayser Fran Hagstrom	Working with Washington Regional Medical Center to develop and teach a series of three service learning courses. Community Health Coaches I, II, and III have had a significant impact on the Northwest Arkansas community, serving the area's most vulnerable community members.