The Awards Committee has responsibility for identifying and recognizing four awards:

Distinguished Alumni of the Year Award	Board Member of the Year
Media Award	Technical Education Champion (TECh) Award

The Board of Directors shall approve an awards rating committee. Each unit member district will select its own member to review and rate nominations for the Association awards program.

Members will serve in this role for one year and can be re-appointed indefinitely. The Committee will determine, select the recipients of, and deliver the association’s annual awards. The members will select award recipients by rating official award nominations, and Association staff will announce the nomination period for each award.

At the end of the nomination period, the Association will provide committee members with a slate of nominees eligible for the award and with corresponding nomination materials. Committee members will rate the nominations according to criteria for each award. Committee members will be expected to rate awards during a time period outside of the Association meetings. The Association will then tabulate the results of the award rating and announce the winner.

Distinguished
Alumni Scoring

Media
Scoring

Technical Education
Champion Scoring

Distinguished
Alumni Award

The Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes a truly outstanding Wisconsin Technical College graduate. It is very satisfying to read the nominations describing the great work and lives of our successful graduates.

From the nominations, we select one extraordinary person based on five criteria. Those criteria are:

• the role that a technical college education played in the nominee's career and personal life;
  
  
• the nominee's accomplishments in their professional field;
  
  
• the nominee's community involvement;
  
  
• the nominee's support for the technical college system; and, finally,
  
  
• the nominee's commitment to continuing education and life-long learning.

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Technical Education Champion Award

The TECh award goes to the heart of what the colleges are all about in our communities. It recognizes key community and industry leaders who demonstrate an exemplary level of partnership with us to promote technical education and economic development.

The Technical Education Champion award is based on five criteria:

• the nominee’s promotion of the local college;
  
  
• the nominee’s financial support to the district and individuals associated with the college;
  
  
• the nominee’s utilization of the college for employee training, and by hiring our students;
  
  
• the nominee’s advocacy on the college's behalf; and,
  
  
• the nominee’s enhancement of the community as a whole.
  
  

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Media Award

The association gives one award each year on a statewide basis to recognize a print, audio, or visual media effort about Wisconsin Technical Colleges that best meets the following four criteria:

• the nomination portrays today’s technical college learning environment positively, with originality and creativity;
  
  
• the nomination portrays the benefits of technical college education on individuals and their communities;
  
  
• the nomination reports positively about the technical college's service and contributes to a better public understanding of the college’s mission; and, finally,
  
  
• the nomination thoroughly covers the subject matter in stimulating and clear fashion.
  
  

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Board Member of the Year Award

The association members recommend colleagues who have made particularly important contributions to our cause as board members and as an association.

The Board Member of the Year Award is based on three criteria:

• involvement at the district level;
  
  
• involvement at the state level; and,
  
  
• involvement at the national level.
  
  

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Longstanding Board Member Award

The association recognizes all longstanding board members who have served on the association board for ten years or more and will no longer be a board member going forward. We deeply appreciate their years of hard work and passion to help make our association the amazing organization that it is.

The Longstanding Board Member criteria is:

• has served as a member of the association's board for ten or more (10+) years;
  
  
• will no longer be a member of the association board going forward.
  
  

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Awards Timeline

Announcement: June 1st

Nominations Due: July 31st

Ratings Due: August 2026

Presented: Fall Meeting

Nomination Forms

Nomination Information

Your nomination submission must include an essay explaining why the nominee should receive the award based on the stated award criteria.

Nomination essays must be formatted as follows:

• Size 12 Font
• Typed
• Double-spaced
• Two (2) Pages or Less
  
  

Submissions that do not follow this format will be disqualified.

Award nominations must be received no later than July 31st, 2026.