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Awards for fostering community

CMS and IST Gradient for Change Awards

The CMS and IST Gradient for Change Awards honor students, postdocs, staff, and faculty in the Caltech community who demonstrate exceptional efforts to strengthen the Caltech and/or the broader scientific community and make it a more inclusive environment. The awards recognize and highlight individual contributors or small teams who are considered agents of change, community leaders, and/or allies to underrepresented group(s) in the information sciences, including computer science, applied mathematics, and beyond.

Nominations are reviewed by a committee of students and faculty that is selected by the CMS Committee for Climate, Engagement and Student Success. Depending on the applications in a given year, separate awards may be given at the undergraduate, graduate, staff, postdoc, and faculty levels. Awards come with a $500 prize.

These awards are open to all students, postdoctoral scholars, staff, and faculty.

Nomination instructions and requirements:

Nominations for 2025 should be submitted via email to Roberta Carvalho no later than Monday, April 15, 2025.

  • Candidates may nominate themselves or be nominated by their peers/advisors.
  • Nominations should take the form of a letter no longer than 1 page that describes both the activities of the nominee and the impact of those activities. Supporting materials detailing the efforts are allowed but not required.
  • The nominee must have held an active appointment/employment during the 2024-2025 academic year as one of the following: Caltech undergraduate student, graduate student, postdoctoral scholar, staff, or faculty member.
  • The activities of the nominee must contribute to strengthening community in the information sciences, broadly defined, including but not limited to computer science and applied mathematics.

Examples of qualifying activities: community organizing; outreach; mentorship; allyship; activism; teaching; curriculum design; creation and implementation of new initiatives.