AICP Student Project Awards

Nominations deadline: December 9, 2008

Faculty and students often participate in community-based planning activities. The American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) is interested in connecting education and practice. This annual award highlights student projects demonstrating planning practice within a community. The project may be the result of field work, internships, plan preparation, studios, working with public planners, citizens, etc.

The AICP Student Project Award recognizes a student or group of students in a PAB-accredited planning program for an outstanding paper or class project in up to three categories:

• the project that best demonstrates the contribution of planning to contemporary issues
• the project that best applies the planning process and applied research
• applied research

Click here to see winners from 2008 and past years

Eligibility

• A nomination for this award may be submitted by either:
  • The Head of a PAB-accredited university planning program, or
  • The duly elected or appointed Planning Student Organization (PSO) Student Representative of a PAB-accredited program. NOTE: A program may submit only one nomination for this award.
    
    
• The project must have been completed within three years of the date of submission (for the 2009 Award, December 2005 or later) by students enrolled in a Planning Accreditation Board (PAB) accredited program.
  
• A project may receive this award one time. Click here to see previous winners.
• Members of the AICP Awards Jury, the AICP Commission, or the APA Board of Directors are not eligible during their terms of service. Members of APA staff also are not eligible.
• This awards program is intended to recognize exceptional work by the student(s). While it is appropriate to submit a project or paper on which a faculty member(s) has given guidance or even suggested the topic, any analysis, proposal, recommendations, or graphics should be primarily the work of the students.

Selection Criteria

The jury will consider the following criteria in choosing the winning projects.

• Innovative: Originality of concept or appreciable refinement of existing techniques or procedures
• Transferable: Potential application to other locations, projects, or areas of planning interest
• Quality: Excellence of thought, analysis, writing, graphics, and character of presentation
• Implementation: Effectiveness of the work (proposals have been carried out, show promise of being carried out, or demonstrate an effective implementation technique)
• Comprehensive: Planning principles have been observed, especially in considering a project's effects on other public objectives

Deadline and Submission Format

All nominations must be submitted by Tuesday, December 9, 2008. Incomplete applications or those submitted or completed after the deadline will not be considered.

All entries must be submitted on CDs. Hard copies of final project reports are not accepted. See submission checklist below for full details.

Submission Checklist

Please follow the checklist below. It will The assist you in preparing your entry:

Document 1 — Entry Information (call this file: EntryInformation.doc)

• Entry Name/Title — Complete Title of the Entry
• School and academic level
• Category — (a) contribution of planning to contemporary issues, (b) application of the planning process, or (c) applied research
• Nominator (Required) — NOTE: Only the head of a PAB-accredited university planning program or the school's elected/appointed APA-PSO SRC Student Representative may nominate an entry.
• Nominator's Contact Information — Name, title, mailing and e-mail addresses, and daytime phone number. Indicate whether the Nominator of this entry is the head of the planning program or the official APA-PSO Student Representative.
• The month and year this project was completed.
• Contacts

• Coordinator (Required) — Name, title, mailing and e-mail addresses, and daytime phone number of the person responsible for communicating with APA staff about the materials submitted and directly with project team members (details concerning the presentation and other recognition, if entry is selected). Unclaimed certificates, etc., will be shipped to the coordinator at the address entered here.
• Project Contact (Required) — Staff may contact a student participant or project advisor with questions specific to the project or submitted materials.
  
  
• Summary of Project (200-400 words) — Describe how this project meets the award criteria above.
• Full names of all project team members, clearly indicating which are students, advisers, faculty, etc. This file will be used for award program, certificates, etc.

Document 2 —Project Description (call this file: NAR[short project name].doc)

Please describe the project more fully, including its outcomes. Make sure to include: (1) The source and amount of any financial support this project received; (2) filename references to specific supporting materials (see below), and active links to online resources (if any).

Document 3 — Photograph/Image List (call this file: IMGlist.doc)

List each image that is being submitted on the CD by filename and provide for each a caption that provides context and shows the entry's positive results or intended results. All images submitted must be digital, copyright-free images. Please include photo credit details. Photos and graphics should supplement, not restate, what exists in the project summary.

Document 4 — Letter(s) of Support (call these files: LTR[lastname].pdf)

All letters should be on the letterhead of the supporter's school, agency, or company and submitted in PDF format.

• (Required) A letter of support from the school's Planning Program Head.
• (Optional) Additional letters from agencies, organizations, or companies connected with the project.

Folder 1 — Image files (call this folder Images)

Create a folder on the CD for all image files that are listed in Document 3 — Photograph/Image List. Provide graphics in these file formats: .jpg, .gif, .ppt, or .pdf. Include any charts and graphs supporting the results of the project.

Final Project Report (if applicable)

Hard copy reports will not be accepted.

• Web-based report — If the final report was created in a web format, include the URL for viewing by the AICP Awards Jury. The URL must be active between the submission date and March 2009. If an entry is selected for an award, a permanent link should be established for linking from the AICP Student Project Award recognition webpage.
• Report on CD-ROM — If the final report is not web-based and will fit on a CD-ROM, please include it on the submission CD. If it does not fit on a CD, web pages containing the project must be created and the URL included. Include text and graphics files in these formats: .jpg, .gif, .ppt, .doc, .pdf, or .rtf.

Other Optional Files

• Reviews of the implementation effort, analysis of the results, newspaper clippings, editorials, etc. (call this file: MIS[number].[filetype])
• promotional materials (call this file: MIS[number].[filetype])

Submission and Judging

Submission

• Entries must be received on CD by December 9, 2008.
• Files should have active links to supporting material that exists online.
• Submit 6 copies of the CD, clearly marked with project name to:

  AICP Student Project Award
  Leadership Department
  American Planning Association
  122 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 1600
  Chicago, IL 60603

Award Jury
The jury's procedures prohibit communicating individually with any jury member on behalf of a nominee. Should an unusual problem require jury attention, it may be communicated through Susan Turner at sturner@planning.org.

Selection and Notification
Award winners will be notified as soon as they have been determined. A list of award winners will be sent to the contact at each school.

Recognition
Winning entries will be announced in APA’s interact and recognized at the 2009 APA National Planning Conference during the APA/AICP Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony in Minneapolis, April 25-29, 2009.

Questions?
Please send your inquiries to Susan Turner at sturner@planning.org.