Event Details

End: November 1, 2020
Contact: Cherry_Award@baylor.edu
More Info: https://www.baylor.edu/cherry_awards/index.php?id=968226

Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching

The Cherry Award program is designed to honor great teachers, to stimulate discussion in the academy about the value of teaching, and to encourage departments and institutions to value their own great teachers. The recipient of the Cherry Award will receive a prize of $250,000 and will teach in residence at Baylor University during the 2020 fall or 2021 spring semester; travel expenses and a furnished apartment will be provided. To further Baylor University's commitment to great teaching, the award recipient's home department will receive $25,000.

The Award Process

Three finalists will be chosen from the field of nominees. Nominations should correspond with academic units engaged in undergraduate teaching at Baylor. Each finalist will receive $15,000 and will be invited to present a series of lectures at Baylor University in the fall of 2019. Finalists will present a Cherry Award Lecture on their home campuses as well. In addition, the home department of the finalists will receive $10,000 to foster the development of pedagogical skills. The recipient of the Cherry Award, announced in Spring 2020, will thus receive a total of $265,000, and $35,000 for his or her home department.

Selection Criteria

The Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching honors outstanding professors in the English-speaking world who are distinguished for their ability to communicate as classroom teachers. Individuals nominated for the award should have a proven record as an extraordinary teacher with a positive, inspiring, and long-lasting effect on students, along with a record of distinguished scholarship. 

THE CHERRY AWARD COMMITTEE at Baylor University is composed of leading academics from across the campus. Their intention is to continue to build the prominence of the Cherry Award as the most significant honor for an individual who has a proven record for extraordinary teaching. Mr. Cherry described such a teacher as a lover of the acquisition of learning who can inspire his students, arouse their imagination, and stimulate their curiosity to desire to learn everything that man can know, and achieve everything that man can reach and grasp.

 

Nomination deadline: November 1, 2020.

Nominations may be submitted online beginning May 1, 2020.

Supporting documents to be submitted with the nomination are:

1. curriculum vitae

2. summary statement (2 pgs max written by nominator) describing how the nominee satisfies the selection criteria

3. school catalog descriptions of representative courses taught during the last full year of teaching – please limit to one-page document.

4. 3(min) - 8(max) letters of reference from former students, colleagues, deans, etc. (letters should be 1-2 pages in length, must contain contact information of the person submitting the reference and current date. The nominator should not be an additional reference.)