Student Chapter Awards and Recognition
Student chapter awards and recognition recognize those that go above and beyond to fulfill SPE’s mission by serving local members. The awards honor exemplary efforts in industry engagement, operations and planning, community and social outreach, and more.
Presidential Award for Outstanding Student Chapter
The Presidential Award for Outstanding Student Chapter is the highest honor a student chapter can receive. It recognizes the top 10 percent of student chapters that are exemplary in the scoring categories. The awards are presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition.
Student Chapter Excellence Award
The Student Chapter Excellence Award is the second-highest student chapters can receive. It recognizes up to the next 20 percent of eligible student chapters that have accomplished an admirable level of success. A certificate is emailed to all designated student chapters.
View All Recipients
Eligibility and Judging
In order to be considered for awards, student chapters must meet the following maintenance criteria at the 1 April annual report deadline:
- Must have minimum of 25 members
- Must have a Faculty Advisor on file
- Must have at least three core officers on file: President, Vice President, Secretary, Membership Chair, Treasurer
- Cannot be on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)
- Must submit an annual report by 1 April
- Must opt into awards consideration within the annual report
Each student chapter will demonstrate a different level of activity in the scoring categories below - depending on initiative, size, and resources. To normalize the varying sizes, student chapters are divided into four even size groups according to the student chapter's total paid membership as of 31 December. The size groups are Small, Medium, Large, and Mega.
Recipients are selected through two rounds of review. In the first round, SPE Regional Staff Managers create a shortlist of their regions to advance to the next round. In the second and final round, Regional Directors review and finalize the recipients.
Categories and Weights
- Technical Dissemination – 25%
- Technical activities such as field trips, research programs, symposiums, technical presentations, and training courses
- Professional Development – 25%
- Professional activities such as career events, networking, mentor programs, and soft skills training
- Engaging, Retaining, and Growing Membership – 20%
- Member programs such as awards, alumni engagement, new member welcome, and volunteer recognition
- Methods for growth retention, and student-to-professional conversion
- Programs made exclusive to members only
- Community Involvement – 15%
- Community activities such as youth and teacher education and community service
- Operations and Planning – 15%
- Goals
- Use of committees
- Succession plan
- Communications and the sample uploaded communication
Regional Student Chapter Recognition
This program aims to spotlight those doing excellent work within their SPE regions but not achieving a global Presidential or Excellence Award. The program recognizes those that are innovative, have a particularly noteworthy program, or are making great progress.
Regional Directors establish the selection process for their respective region(s). The regional winners should not exceed 25% of all student chapters not achieving a global award that year. A certificate is emailed to all recognized student chapters.