2025 Percy Hughes Award Nominations Now Open
Mar. 10, 2025
We are pleased to announce the 2025 call for nominations for the Percy Hughes Award for Scholarship, Humanity, and Social Change.
About Percy Hughes
Percy Hughes was a philosopher, teacher, and professor who directed the Philosophy, Education, and Psychology Department at Lehigh University beginning in 1907 until 1942. Over the course of his 35-year tenure at Lehigh, Hughes used the responsibility of scholarship to pursue social change and transform the Lehigh culture. By committing himself to interdisciplinary work and humanistic principles, he furthered Lehigh’s tradition of scientific and classical education. From encouraging curriculum reform for engineers to campaigning against compulsory chapel attendance, Hughes worked tirelessly to transform Lehigh on an educational level. From women’s rights to environmentalism, Hughes devoted his life to historically progressive ideas. Hughes personified and advanced Lehigh’s motto – Homo minister et interpres naturae (man, servant and interpreter of nature) – throughout his career at Lehigh.
About the Award
The Percy Hughes Award recognizes those who advance Lehigh University's culture of addressing the world's most pressing challenges with sleeves rolled up and an orientation towards real world issues. Award recipients are leaders who not only foster Lehigh's historic educational mission, values, and core beliefs but also push Lehigh in new directions and heights of excellence. The recipient shall be a Lehigh University faculty member, staff member, or student (either graduate or undergraduate in good standing) who works towards implementing large, transformative ideas in the local, national, and world communities with grace, tenacity, and devotion.
The award covers the calendar year prior to its being awarded. For example, the 2025 award will recognize accomplishments in January-December of 2024.
Nominations may be submitted by current students, faculty or staff across all of the departments in the five colleges.Self-nominations will not be considered. Nominators should clearly describe how the nominee demonstrates the following four characteristics and behaviors:
Positive orientation: Committed to improving Lehigh and/or the broader communities (whether at the local, national, or global level).
Visible impact: Has a noticeable effect on Lehigh and/or the broader communities.
Innovative and/or transformative vision: Whether within Lehigh or in broader communities, contributes to enhancing current processes or helping to formulate new approaches and processes, or to helping others come to understand and support a transformative vision of how to move from where we are now to a state more in keeping with the spirit of Lehigh University.
Positive interpersonal characteristics: Demonstrates respect for all with whom he/she deals, demonstrates persistence when/if facing a setback, and honors both similarities and differences within and across communities.
Nominations
Nominations must be submitted by May 1, 2025 at 5 p.m. via email sent to Robin Hojnoski, Acting Dean of the College of Education, at roh206@lehigh.edu. All individuals will be notified of their nomination for the award. The selection committee shall select a single recipient, although co-recipients may be selected when the committee finds it impossible to identify a single, most-deserving recipient. The recipient will receive $5,000, in which half will be donated to a charity of their choice, and they will have their names engraved on the Percy Hughes Award plaque. The name of each year’s recipient(s) will be engraved on a publicly posted institutional plaque listing all previous recipients, and the accomplishments of the recipient(s) will be described and posted on the College of Education’s website.
The 2024 Award Recipient
Dr. Kallie (Ziltz) Pearl
Kallie (Ziltz) Pearl ‘16, ‘17, ‘18G, ‘24 Ph.D. is a four-time Lehigh alumna, most recently graduating from the College of Education’s Teaching, Learning and Technology (TLT) program with her doctoral degree. Pearl joined the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science faculty in 2020, where she has developed innovative ways to engage students -especially women and other underrepresented populations -in computer science.
A tireless advocate for women in computing, as a student Pearl founded a Women in Computing Club within the COE and now serves as the faculty advisor for the club. She has also worked with middle school students as part of the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) days and as part of the Charting Horizons and Opportunities in Careers in Engineering and Science (CHOICES) program at Lehigh. In receiving the award, Pearl noted “I see myself in the work Hughes accomplished, and know that my path would not be as clear without folks like him paving the way.”
More about Percy Hughes:
- About Percy Hughes
- Percy Hughes Special Collections Flyer No. 19 (2001)
- Percy Hughes Publications and Papers (1872-1952)
