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The David J. Prior Award was created in 2012 to recognize senior-level undergraduates whose academic careers and future goals have been shaped by the transformative power of the liberal arts and sciences experience at a COPLAC institution. Each student's reflective personal essay highlights one or more of the following features of COPLAC's student-centered approach to teaching: emphasis on active learning, ethical reasoning, interdisciplinary approaches to knowledge, community engagement, critical and reflective skills, and connections between liberal learning and informed, active citizenship.
The legacy of David Prior - his career-long commitment to superior undergraduate teaching, his desire as a consortium leader to make the outcomes of an education at our public liberal arts institutions widely recognized, and his deep concern that all students, regardless of financial circumstances, have equal access to a high-quality education anchored in the liberal arts and sciences - is the inspiration for this award.
I am a senior at Truman State University studying Business Administration with a minor in Statistics, in the Business Analytics certificate program. I am interested in using data to better understand people, businesses, and decision-making.
I was born and raised in Ethiopia, and my background has shaped how I see education, opportunity, and community. Coming to college in the United States has taught me to adapt, work hard, and stay open to different ways of thinking. My interest in business and analytics comes from wanting to understand how people make decisions and how data can be used to solve real problems.
My essay focused on the value of a liberal education. To me, liberal education matters because it helps students think critically, communicate clearly, and connect what they learn in the classroom to real life.
Read her essay here.
Haley Abate, Eastern Connecticut State University (read their essay here)
The COPLAC Board of Directors, in memory of the contributions of Charles Dunn to the advancement of the consortium and to student success in the public liberal arts sector, had established an annual faculty award in his name.
As President of Henderson State University for twenty-two years, and as a COPLAC President (2000-2001) and Board member for ten years, Dr. Charles Dunn placed student well-being and academic success ahead of all else, affirming Henderson State University's reputation as the "School with a Heart."
Charles Dunn understood that members of the faculty play the essential role in advancing this mission. Therefore the COPLAC Award recognizes a faculty member whose commitment to student success goes "above and beyond" the classroom and office, the traditional roles of teacher, academic advisor, and mentor. She/he will have demonstrated, over the course of many years, extraordinary attention to students as individuals who sometimes face unique challenges, both on and off campus, that may compromise their academic performance.
Examples of student-centered service "above and beyond" are myriad and include: hosting an undergraduate who would otherwise be alone for the holidays, stepping in to assist with transportation to the airport or for a medical appointment, or extending a gesture of friendship when a loved one has been lost. The review committee seeks to recognize a COPLAC faculty colleague who consistently practices the vision of a public liberal arts campus as a community dedicated to learning on a human scale.
A member of the faculty at Eastern Connecticut State University since 2002, Dr. Kim Ward is a Professor of Mathematical Sciences and the Coordinator of the Math Foundations Program. She is the recipient of the Eastern Connecticut State University Excellence in Teaching Award for full-time faculty which recognizes faculty members who inspire students through exceptional subject knowledge, innovative teaching methods, and a commitment to lifelong learning. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Virginia Commonwealth University and earned her Ph.D. at Old Dominion University.
As a former underachieving high school student, and a first generation and low-income college student, Dr. Ward recognizes the power that teaching and mentoring has on one’s life and their progeny. She has a strong affinity for mentoring students, promoting the academic success of students in higher education and the acquisition of lifelong learning skills.
Dr. Ward coordinated and taught in the math portion of the highly successful Summer Transition to Eastern Program/Contract Admissions Program (STEP/CAP), a residential summer bridge program helping underprepared students transition to college for 17 years. Building on this work, Dr. Ward became one of the Co-Principal Investigators, with the National Science Foundation (NSF) S-STEM grant: Scholarships and a Learning Community Approach to Support Success of Undergraduates in Mathematics and Biology. The overall goal of the S-STEM grant is to provide low-income, academically promising students in the biology and mathematics programs with social, academic and financial support, to enhance their recruitment, retention, and graduation. Additionally, Dr. Ward became Eastern's Institutional Coordinator for the NSF-funded Nutmeg State, Connecticut State Universities Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) in STEM grant, and following the cancellation of the grant in May 2025, continues to lead the Eastern Minorities in STEM Alliance, with the mission of increasing STEM participation, success, and graduation rates among historically underrepresented groups, and thus to diversify the state’s and the nation’s STEM workforce. Utilizing her interest in math education and curriculum development skills, Dr. Ward designs and delivers programs that address lack of academic preparedness for college-level math coursework and learned helplessness. Additional goals of her program designs include creating a sense of belonging and self-identity in STEM, enhancing students’ confidence, self-efficacy, persistence and success in STEM majors and careers and teaching them how to become a self-directed learner.