Maricopa Community Colleges in collaboration with the League for Innovation in the Community Colleges is requesting applications for the 2024-2025 Innovation of the Year Award program. The award recognizes MCCCD faculty, staff, and administrators who have implemented innovative programs, practices, partnerships, policies, and activities within the last three years that improve Maricopa’s ability to serve students and the community.
Proposal submission period: October 21, 2024 – December 2, 2024
College/District Office Selects Winning Innovation: December 3 – December 18, 2024
Videos Submitted for Districtwide Competition: February 17, 2025
Districtwide Judging of Winning Innovations: February 18 – February 28, 2025
Announcement of Districtwide Winning Project: March 21, 2025
Eligibility
- Employees and/or employee teams are eligible for nomination by an employee or by self-nomination. Employee teams may include non-Maricopa individuals.
- Cross-college collaboration nominations are accepted. However, the nomination must be submitted by one agreed-upon college/location.
- Nominations that were submitted in the past that were not selected for the Paul M. Pair Award, and that still meet program criteria may be resubmitted for consideration.
- Projects may have been recently completed pilots or program implementations. These projects should have enough data to show the effectiveness of the innovation.
College and District Office Nomination Process
MCCCD faculty (residential, adjunct, one-year-only, one-semester-only, and clock-hour), classified staff, part-time staff, and administrators are invited to submit proposals. Once all proposals are submitted, MCLI will send each College’s member of the Innovation of the Year planning team an electronic copy of all submissions for their respective college. Each College and the District Office determine the process for selecting the winning proposal. Each winning project must be submitted online by the end of the day on Wednesday, December 18, 2024.
Districtwide Innovation of the Year
Each winning project will be invited to participate in the 2024-2025 MCCCD Districtwide Pitch competition (see the districtwide competition rubric). The competition is a great opportunity to pitch innovative practices to a panel of judges with a chance to win the District-wide Innovation of the Year award and receive the Dr. Paul M. Pair award to further the development of the project. Recipients are also recognized by the League for Innovation in the Community Colleges.
Previous Paul M. Pair Award Recipients
The full list of previous Districtwide Innovation of the Year / Paul M. Pair Award recipients can be found at https://mcli.maricopa.edu/innovation/innovation-year
Information from the Maricopa Center for Learning and Innovation (MCLI).