Undergraduate Awards & Resources

• Students must be a Communication major or minor in the Organizational Sciences and Communication Department.
• The project must have been completed in a Communication course and judged by the professor as “excellent” (receiving the grade of A- or higher).
• Applicants must agree to publicly present their work at least once, either on or off campus. Once the presentation has occurred, the student(s) receive the cash award.

• The project, submitted in a format that permits the evaluators to assess its excellence as a communication event, experience or plan of action.
• A brief letter of application (who you are and why you’re submitting your work)
• A letter of endorsement from the appropriate professor

Note: A project may be submitted only once during the course of a student’s career at GW. A student (as an individual, partner or group member) may submit no more than two projects in any given academic year.

In general, any excellent creative or analytical work may be submitted for award consideration, so long as it incorporates Communication course material, addresses relevant communication principles and applies classroom learning to real-life situations of relevance to the university community or the Washington metropolitan area. Examples include:

• A senior seminar paper with an applied focus
• An analysis of persuasion phenomena that students regularly encounter
• A small-group policy proposal for an office or organization on campus
• A set of interpersonal communication exercises designed for use in the classroom, other student settings or organizations in Washington, D.C.
• Video exemplars of communication theory principles
• An organizational communication survey designed, administered, and analyzed to improve the effectiveness of some communicative aspect of the life at GW
• A videotaped public communication presentation that reaches out to the community

Awardees are selected by a three-member committee of Communication program professors, who will make up to two awards each year. Winners are awarded a $500 cash prize and are recognized in the university’s commencement program.

• Completed application form
• An unofficial GW transcript (from the registrar’s office)
• A brief (1–2 pages) statement describing the contexts in which you have used oral communication skills during your time at GW, noting the ways that you have used your communication knowledge to have a positive impact in those contexts. These examples may include leadership positions in student organizations, peer advising, volunteer work in service projects or organizations or employment outside the university. In short, tell us about any setting in which you have used public, small-group or interpersonal skills in a way that reflects the Communication program’s work.
• Two letters of recommendation, at least one of which must come from someone who is not a GW faculty member; none should be requested from Communication Program faculty.

Originally established in 1847 as an annual prize to the graduating seniors of the Columbian College who demonstrated “the greatest progress in elocution since their connection to the college,” this award was named in honor of Isaac Davis, who was governor of Massachusetts at the time the gift was established.