individual Outstanding Community Service Award (iOCSA)

Congratulations to Jinhong Liu, Dr. Liping Ma, Dr. Logan Song and Dr. Fang Wang for your outstanding community service, presented by Mayor Amir Omar of Richardson.

2025 CIE individual community service award recipients

Nomination deadline is Monday, August 18, 2025

Purpose

CIE-DFW Chapter was founded in 1989.  The Chapter has two main core values: 1) to promote community awareness of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and 2) to promote community service and contributions to society. To honor our core value of community involvement, CIE/USA-DFW Chapter has created the INDIVIDUAL Outstanding Community Service Award (iOCSA). Through this program, CIE recognizes individuals (working independently or with local organizations) who have made outstanding contributions to their community through their time, actions, and dedication (outside any volunteer work done directly for their job or their employer).

The iOCSA individual honoree should be a role model for compassion, service to others, and making the world a better place. Award recipients must be available to  be recognized at the CIE/USA-DFW 2025 Annual Convention VIP reception (September 20 at the Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas at Dallas) and will receive an official certificate from the City of Richardson, Texas.

Eligibility

Any individual or member of a local organization or corporation (age 21 or older), may be nominated, except for members of the Awards committee.  The Nominee does not need to be a member of CIE/USA-DFW Chapter. The nominator should be familiar with the scope of the nominee’s community service work.

Criteria

For this iOCSA award, we seek nominees who: (1) have consistently demonstrated qualities of compassion, and service to either one organization or a variety of volunteer activities; (2) have affected society in one or more positive ways that foster long-term change to the public good; (3) stand out among peers as individuals whose service has produced extraordinary results; (4) instituted an innovative approach or policy to their service. The activities or service listed on the application cannot be part of the nominee’s job description or duties and the individual cannot receive any monetary or personal benefits from their involvement. Last, but not least, to become an award recipient, the honoree selected must be present at the ceremony.

Judging Criteria – listed in descending order by importance

• The degree to which their services or initiatives have made a lasting impact on their community (culture, policy or personal lives)
• The length and degree of their service(s)
• The extent to which their action would be recognized and valued by their community leaders

Tips for a Strong Nomination

• Descriptive and specific information about the nominee’s service to the community.
• Testimonials/recognitions/quotes from the nonprofits where the nominee has volunteered.
• Facts or figures about the nominee’s service in the community, such as volunteer hours, number of people/organizations served, extra efforts above and beyond the call of duty, etc.