Student Resources

Rationale for the Award

Graduate students are presently afforded multiple opportunities to be recognized for outstanding academics or scholarship. In contrast, there are few opportunities for them to be recognized for their leadership in service. The College of Education Graduate Student Leadership and Service Award is intended to recognize students who exhibit leadership through service as a means of improving the quality of graduate student life in the College of Education and making the graduate experience better for all. The intentional focus on service leadership acknowledges that student representation and contributions to university, college and program initiatives provide benefits for the student body as a whole. In addition, service through informal mentoring to peers creates a cohesive and collaborative climate in which graduate students can feel connected and supported.

Nomination Criteria

The recipient shall be a graduate student in good standing in one of the six programs in the College of Education who exhibits exemplary leadership and service. Such leadership and service may be within or across college programs (such as student representative to program meetings and informal mentoring of graduate students in the college) and can also be to the college as a whole (such as diversity initiatives), to the profession (such as serving as a university professional organizational representative), or to the university as a whole (such as service on the Graduate Student Council). Students demonstrating outstanding scholarship may also be nominated, but such students must demonstrate exemplary leadership or service in addition to their scholarship.

The award covers the calendar year prior to its being awarded (for example, calendar year 2020 was recognized by the 2021 award). Thus, any deserving student, including those recently graduated, who provided exemplary leadership and service in the previous calendar year is eligible to be nominated.

Nomination Process

Each of the programs in the college will be asked each year to nominate deserving students. In a typical year, each program will nominate at least one student. While programs are most likely to nominate students working in their own programs, they may also nominate students in other programs in the college. In addition, a call for nominations will be sent out to all COE faculty, students and staff, soliciting their nominations as well. Nominations of students from all graduate degree levels (master’s, educational specialist, and doctoral) will be considered.

Nominations may be submitted by graduate students, faculty and staff in the College of Education. Self-nominations, however, will not be considered and a student may not win the award two years in a row.

The nomination form will be posted online on the COE website as soon as possible. Nominators may download the form and complete it electronically. A nomination form will also be distributed via email to all faculty, staff, and students.

The due date for 2025 submissions is Friday, March 13, 2026 by 5pm. Nominations may be submitted electronically by attaching the completed form to an email to the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies; lbs211@lehigh.edu

A student nominated for the COE Graduate Student Leadership and Service Award is also eligible to be nominated for the university Graduate Student Life Leadership Award. The two awards are separate, although nominations for the College award are automatically nominated for the university award by the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies.

Selection Process

The selection committee consists of five members: two faculty members, two graduate students, and the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies. Student representatives may not be nominees, although they may be previous award recipients. The Associate Dean for Graduate Studies will appoint the members of the committee. By convention, when a previous award recipient who is not a current nominee is available, he/she will be asked to serve as one of the student representatives. If two such award recipients are available, they will be asked to serve as the student representatives.

The Associate Dean of Graduate Studies will solicit from the program directors the names of possible student representatives, disqualifying any student who is also a nominee.

In most years the selection committee will select a single award recipient, although co-recipients may be selected where warranted.

Award Process

The award recipient, or co-recipients, will receive $250 in professional development funds. In addition, the names of each year’s recipient (s) will be engraved on a publicly posted institutional plaque listing previous recipients.

The award may be given at a public event, if circumstances allow.

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.

Learn more.

Each year our academic programs in the College have an opportunity to award a limited number of departmental scholarships in the form of tuition waivers. The general preference for awarding such program-administered departmental scholarships is first to full-time students pursuing a doctorate, then part-time students pursuing a doctorate, followed by full-time students pursuing a master’s degree, and lastly to part-time students pursuing a master’s.

The College of Education (COE) scholarship applications for both Summer 2026 and the 2026–2027 academic year have closed.

Applicants will be notified by April 15, 2026 of summer awards and July 1, 2026 of academic year awards.  The college may also refer back to these submissions if additional awards become available later.

Please note that scholarship credits are awarded by the college based on program director recommendations. Changing your program after receiving an award may result in forfeiture of the awarded scholarship credit(s).