Creative Studies Alumni Achievement Award

History of the Alumni Award 1984-2008The Creative Studies Alumni Achievement Award was conceived as a means to recognize service to an educational program that has greatly influenced the lives of its students and instructors. Founded in 1984 by Gary Gorski with the support of Innovation Resource Associates founders Diane Foucar-Szocki and Roger Firestien as well as other Creative Studies faculty and the ICSC community, the first award was presented to Ed Zilewicz. The award originally included a small monetary gift funded completely by former students and past and current staff members of the ICSC.

From 1984 to 2008, all current students of the International Center for Studies in Creativity Masters program who completed at least one full semester and all recent graduates of the program were eligible for the award. In addition to being recognized for the individual’s achievements to date, the award recognized the potential of the individual to utilize his/her degree in creativity and contribute to society in the future. It also provided a small amount of monetary support as traditionally funding for students and recent graduates of the master’s degree were almost non-existent at the time.

The award winners from the inception of the award through 2008 were:
Ed Zilewicz 1984
Patrick Colemont 1985
Gerard Puccio 1986
Jon Michael Fox 1987
Susan M. Keller 1988
Barbara A. Piwko 1989
Kenneth J. Lauer 1989
Carol Speser 1989
Suzanne K. Vosburg 1993
Christopher Grivas 1995
Andrew J. Dutcher 1996
Robert J. Hookey 1997
Russell A. Schoen 1998
John A. Sharkey 1999
Russell A. Wheeler 2000
David Gonzalez 2001
Cynthia A. Argona 2002
Diane M. Steele 2003
Kristin Daley 2004
Hector Ramos 2005
Jennifer Haggerty 2006
Nathan Schwagler 2008


2009 Re-Conceptualized Alumni Award
With the creation of three new endowed scholarships at the International for Center for Studies in Creativity in the names of Sid Parnes & Ruth Noller, Mary Murdock and the Firestien Family, both monetary support and recognition for ICSC students grew. In 2008, it became apparent that the Alumni Achievement Award had a unique place in ICSC awards as the first and longest running Creative Studies award with 22 award winners spanning 24 years. It was at that time that the award was reframed to focus on a long-term view of contributions of alumni.

Awarding of the 2009 Alumni Achievement Award to Marci SegalWith that change in purpose, the Alumni Award was given in 2009 to Marci Segal, M.S. in Creativity who was also ICSC’s first graduate of the undergraduate minor program in creativity in 1977 and a co-founder of World Creativity Week. Marci’s work in the field of creativity spans 33 years of studying, applying and influencing others to bring creativity to the forefront of society. Her keynote address at the Expert-to-Expert Conference in the spring of 2010 as the award winner highlighted her expertise and her ability to be provocative as she challenged the thinking of the community to work toward a set of ethics for creativity professionals.

A call for Nominations for the 2011 Alumni Achievement Award
With the new focus of the Creative Studies Alumni Achievement Award in mind, we invite nominations for the 2011 award recipient. The purpose of the award is to recognize the recipient’s long-term commitment to nurturing and developing creativity and modeling the ideals of living as a creative learner, creative producer, and creative leader. The winner’s influence could be local or global, yet the person makes a strong impression on their community, provides leadership in understanding and disseminating knowledge of creativity and has a demonstrated history of generating rich outcomes that endure.

The next award will be given out in the spring of 2011 at the Expert-to-Expert conference. Starting with the fall of 2010 and continuing each year going forward, a call for nominations will go out in the middle of the fall semester with an end of the calendar year deadline. The selection committee, which is made up of the Award Chair, Department Chair, faculty and immediate past alumni award recipient, will notify the winner by January in anticipation of the winner participating in the award ceremony the following spring. On a year-to-year basis there may be slight variations to the schedule outlined above.

A Call for nominations goes out to the entire Creative Studies Community, including faculty, alumni, current students and colleagues of Creative Studies. Nominations may be submitted by anyone associated with the Center, including the prospective award nominee. The nominated person must be a graduate of the Master’s of Science in Creativity, Certificate Program in Creativity and Change Leadership, the Creative Studies Undergraduate Minor program or the Creative Studies Undergraduate Leadership Program. Full time faculty in the Creative Studies Department are not eligible for the award.

Documentation from the nominator should contain a description of approximately two to three pages that includes past and current activities of the nominee as well as the nominator’s reasons for nominating the person. The description should also include how the nominee demonstrates a long-term commitment to nurturing and developing creativity and modeling the ideals of living as a creative learner, creative producer, and creative leader. Additionally, address in the description how the person makes a strong impression on his/her community and provides leadership in understanding and disseminating knowledge of creativity and bringing to society rich outcomes that endure. Supporting documentation outlining the person’s achievements is encouraged (e.g. vitae or resume, letters of support, links to websites, bibliographies or other documentation of creative productivity and influence) but not essential. The ideal candidate is a creative leader who embodies a creative spirit and is a positive force in society.

The award committee will base its selection on the submitted nomination, personal knowledge of the nominee’s achievements and any recommendations received by the due date. The award has three components: (1) The recipient’s name will be added to the ICSC wall plaque listing all recipients of the award; (2) an engraved plaque presented to the recipient; and (3) the person will be asked to present his/her current thinking to the Creative Studies community at the Expert-to-Expert Conference in May. Nominees who are not selected for the award are automatically considered in the pool of nominees for future cycles.

During the open nomination timeframe, nominations can be emailed or mailed to Gary Gorski, Award Chair, or submitted to a Creative Studies Faculty member.
Alumni Achievement Award c/o Gary Gorski, S-536 Four Rod Rd., Alden, NY 14004 gmgorski@aol.com
Nominations for the 2011 Alumni Achievement Award are due by 1/21/1