Community Engagement Award

Multiple types of awards and recognitions will be offered. Details to come.

The Mass Envirothon Community Engagement Award recognizes teams who do high quality community research, then use what they have learned as they engage with the wider world on the issue:

  • Start with wide-ranging and thorough community research for your Current Issue presentation at the Envirothon.  See this pdf of the 2025 Research and Action Checklist to see what kinds of research will be involved. To qualify for the award, your team must show that you have been resourceful in your research – and have reflected on what you find. 
  • Then take action!  Action projects (See these Action Resources) can be as simple as putting your research findings and recommendations into a letter to the editor or to a decision maker, or making your Current Issue presentation to an audience beyond the Envirothon.  Many forms of action are possible: community education (e.g. making and sharing a video, or organizing a public event), participating in hands-on conservation research or stewardship projects in the field, lobbying for legislation, or meeting with decision-makers. Teams can plug into an existing community effort or develop a project of their own.

Why a Community Engagement Award?  When your team engages in thorough, wide-ranging Current Issue research, and that research results in a presentation or project beyond the Envirothon competition, you deserve recognition for this work! 

When you take what you have learned about this year’s Current Issue and put it to work beyond the Envirothon, the Community Engagement Award provides recognition for your team and visibility for your school and community partners. The wider world gets a better understanding of how young people can be resources for stewardship and positive change in their communities.

Recognition 

  • Teams who earn the Community Engagement Award receive a certificate at the awards program at the May competition. 
  • A letter of congratulations, and a link to your completed Checklist, is sent to your principal, with copies to your coach, superintendent, community partners, state legislators, local news media contacts, and the Secretary of Energy & Environmental Affairs.

More on the Award:

  • The Community Engagement Award is optional and noncompetitive. It can be earned by any team that meets the award requirements. You and your coach are responsible for certifying the quality and completeness of your work.
  • Teams who work to qualify for the Community Engagement Award tell us that they have a better Envirothon experience overall. Everybody wins!
  • Whether or not you choose to qualify for the award, Community Engagement Award resources (see the 2025 Research and Action Checklist in pdf format) may also be helpful in planning your Current Issue presentation.
  • See step-by-step guidance on How to Certify your work and Register your team for the Community Engagement Award
  •  Questions?  Contact Will Snyder at wsnyder@umass.edu

Research and Action Checklists from past years

Teams used these checklists to guide their community research on past Current Issues. Action items were added in 2023 in the change to the Community Engagement Award:

Links to Envirothon teams’ past Community Awards work:

Mass Envirothon teams that meet the requirements for a Community Engagement Award may meet or exceed the expectations for student-led civic engagement projects as set forth in the 2018 Act to Promote and Enhance Civic Engagement and the Mass Department of Education’s Civics Project Guidebook.

For more information on the Mass Envirothon Community Awards, past and present, contact: Will Snyder, wsnyder@umass.edu

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