UNCG Assistant Professor Travis Hicks, M.Arch., AIA, IIDA, IDEC, LEED©AP, NCIDQ, is the 2015 Robert L. Sigmon Service-Learning Award recipient.
Hosted by North Carolina Campus Compact, the Robert L. Sigmon Service-Learning Award recognizes one faculty person on a member campus who has made significant contributions toward furthering the practice of service-learning. The award is named in honor of Robert L. Sigmon, service-learning pioneer and North Carolina native. Spoma Jovanovic, UNCG Professor of Communication Studies, received the Sigmon Award in 2012.
As an Assistant Professor of Interior Architecture, Professor Hicks fully embraces community engagement pedagogy, focusing his scholarship and teaching on projects that advance social justice. Hicks works with undergraduate and graduate students to become engaged citizen designers pursuing projects that are inclusive and participatory. Hicks received the university’s Mary Francis Stone Teaching Excellence Award in 2012, and the College of Arts & Sciences Teaching Excellence Award in 2013. In 2014, Hicks helped launch the Center for Community-Engaged Design (CC-ED) in a storefront space in the low-income Glenwood neighborhood near UNCG to connect students and faculty with community members and partners, engaging diverse stakeholders in design processes that address specific and often critical needs.
A burgeoning scholar, Hicks published a chapter on research in practice in the 15th edition of The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice (2014), a national standard for architectural practice. He has presented at numerous national and international conferences and helped secured multiple community-based research grants, graduate research assistantships, and undergraduate research awards. He is currently serving as a Faculty Fellow for Community Engagement, through UNCG’s Faculty Teaching and Learning Center. In 2014 he was one of ten finalists for the national Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement for Early Career Faculty, sponsored by NERCHE. In her nomination of Hicks for the award, international community engagement expert Barbara Holland stated that Hicks, “demonstrates a level of maturity and wisdom in engaged scholarship that is uncommon. His attention to quality practices ensures authenticity and reciprocity in partnerships, and strong learning experiences for his students.”
NC Campus Compact will present this award during the 2015 Pathways to Achieving Civic Engagement (PACE) Conference on February 18, 2015. To learn more about the award, including previous recipients, visit this link.
Reposted from North Carolina Campus Compact