The Ivory Community Leadership Award is a cash award given out by the Center for Community Engaged Learning. Two Weber State University students could receive this award in April.
Provided by Clark and Christine Ivory, the founders of Ivory Homes, this leadership award offers $2,000 to the winner of the award and an extra $10,000 towards the winners initiative or cause.
“This is the family foundation that Clark and Christine created to invest back into the Utah community,” Alexis Bucknam, the executive director of CCEL, said.
The Ivory Community Leadership Award was first brought to WSU in 2021 and has been given out every April since then, making 2024 the fourth year that the prize will be given out.
The award operates to acknowledge students who have strongly impacted student success and offer leadership to the community around them. CCEL is looking to award students who have worked to develop new programs and organizations around campus as well as outside of campus.
What makes the Ivory Prize unique is that the award is not only open to undergraduates and graduate students, but also those who have recently graduated from Weber State.
Alumni nominees need to have graduated within the last five years to be eligible for the award. This aspect of the award makes the Ivory Prize stand out amongst other awards that are given away on campus.
“It is a nice thing that we can recognize people who have continued to work in the community after graduation and have continued to invest their time and resources in that way,” Bucknam said.
Nominations and applications for this award are due on Feb. 29, and after that the Ivory Award Committee will begin their review process for the award.
From the week of March 18-25, the committee will select and announce the recipient of this year’s award. On April 5, CCEL will hold a recognition event to celebrate this year’s prize recipient and top nominees.
Another aspect that sets this award apart is that two people can receive the award. Each recipient will receive $2,000, but the $10,000 will be split amongst the two recipients. The two recipients will then get $5,000 to donate to their cause or team.
The winner of the prize will be acknowledged via a display in the Shepherd Union building.
In 2023 the Ivory Prize was awarded to B. Drake Regalado Alton. When Alton was a junior at WSU in 2021 he founded a non-profit organization called the Regalado Foundation. This foundation works to help Ogden students that are underrepresented get into college and other forms of higher education.
According to the Regalado Foundation’s website, they have raised $40,000 in scholarship awards for students over the past three years.
The Ivory Community is currently committed to five years of doing the Ivory Prize, meaning 2025 may be the last time that the award is given away at Weber State.
Bucknam hopes that WSU can show the positive impact that an award like this has had on students and the community, this way the award can continue to be given out annually.
“Often times for undergrads or people in grad school it can be difficult to make a financial investment in something you care about, so the fact that the award allows for that makes it pretty unique and away for students to reflect back to the community partners they worked with,” Bucknam said.
