This award recognizes Research Assistants (RA)s who have dedicated time and effort to improve the climate of their research groups. The number of awards and the nature of each award may vary from year to year depending on resource availability.

Qualifying criteria: All CU Boulder graduate students who have not previously been awarded an UGGS/GPSG ORAA are eligible to receive this award.  Graduate students may only receive one ORAA during their entire CU career.
Graduate Students from all disciplines will be equally considered for these awards.

There will be a section in which you can upload a letter of recommendation; this is optional. The letter of recommendation can come from a program coordinator, a professor, a primary investigator, a former mentee, or your adviser.

Nominations will be graded on the following criteria:
1. Mentorship and collaboration (40%) -- Nomination materials should highlight the influence of the nominee on members of their research community across levels and the nominee’s willingness to collaborate with other researchers.
2. Commitment to growth (40%) -- Nomination materials should highlight the nominee’s willingness to learn from other disciplines, and show active effort to adopt best practices in research.
3. Research/creative philosophy (20%) -- Nomination materials should discuss the nominee’s research/creative philosophy, research/work’s significance and impact.


Nominations close on April 16th at 11:59 pm Mountain Time.