Grinnell College is seeking applications from across the globe for the 2020 Grinnell College Innovator for Social Justice Prize that honors individuals who have demonstrated leadership in their fields and who show creativity, commitment, and extraordinary accomplishment in effecting positive social change.
Do you know somebody who is:
A change-maker working on the cutting edge of social innovation?
A leader collaborating and co-creating solutions to pressing social justice issues?
A visionary tackling immediate challenges while also addressing related systemic issues?
A mentor inspiring the next generation of social innovators?
Prize Information
Each prize carries an award of $100,000, half to the winning individual(s) and half to their related, nominated organization.
Eligibility Criteria
Nominees must be nominated by a third party.
Nominees may be a single individual or a team of two people who are working together and who are the primary project innovators.
Each nominee must have earned a bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) between 2004 and 2020.
Nominees should be forces for social justice. The nominator should be able to demonstrate that the nominees, through their education, hard work, and dedication, have:
Identified a concrete social or environmental justice need;
Designed and implemented an equitable and creative solution related to that need;
Begun to address the need’s systemic and root causes; and
Demonstrated a substantive and sustainable community or environmental impact.
Nominees must consent to their nomination. This consent will be given in the form of a letter that nominators upload in PDF format. (If applicants are nominating two individuals for collaborative work, nominees should write this letter together.) The letter will include:
A statement indicating their willingness to be nominated for this prize;
A statement confirming that they have completed an undergraduate degree(s) between 2004 and 2020, noting the name of the degree-granting college(s) or university(s); and
A 4-5 paragraph description of their social innovation that includes a summary of:
The context for the social justice need they are addressing
Their work, including how it is innovative either in concept or implementation
The ways in which they are addressing immediate needs as well as systemic issues and root causes related to the need
The current and planned impact of their work
A biography that highlights:
The development of their interest and involvement with the social justice need
The connections between their work and their education
Nominees should have demonstrated the essence of Grinnell College’s broad liberal arts education through serving the common good and demonstrating expertise in the areas of critical thinking, innovative problem solving, and measurable systemic change making.
Nominees must not be widely known outside their immediate community or field.
Nominees may be nationals of any country.
Nominees DO NOT need to be affiliated with Grinnell College.
Nominees must have sufficient English fluency to engage with the Grinnell College community.
Nominees must be able to provide in English any supplemental information required as part of the selection process.