Dean Hank Dobin Thesis Prize

ProCES is proud to award the Dean Hank Dobin Prize in Community-Engaged Independent Work to students whose outstanding thesis best engages a community audience, whether through extensive research, policy recommendations, or new information and analysis.  The prize is named after former Dean Dobin, who was instrumental to the creation of the Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship during his time at Princeton. Prizes are awarded on Class Day and include the following monetary awards: First Prize $1,000; Second Prize $500; Third Prize $250.

Please note that the Dobin Prize has been awarded for 2022. ProCES will alert the community when submissions are open for 2023.

Nominate Your Thesis

ProCES invites students who have completed independent work on a community-engaged topic to submit their thesis for consideration each spring. To apply, students submit the following documents to proces@princeton.edu:

  1. Your thesis;
  2. A short (5-7 page) report that communicates the important conclusions of your project to a non-academic audience—likely your community partner organization. You might consider this short document to be a type of policy brief, white paper, or business report. This report should be adapted (not cut and pasted) from your thesis and should:
    • discuss the relevance of your work for a particular community or community organization
    • highlight the implications of your research for current policies and practices in that community/community organization
    • provide strategic policy and practice recommendations for the community/community organization.
ProCES will archive the final version of the short report to share with students and community partners, when appropriate.
 

Write for a Community Audience

Not sure how to write a community-facing report of the thesis?
 
Join in a workshop on Sharing Your Thesis with Activists and Practitioners in the spring. After you register for the session, we will send you location and details. ProCES and the Princeton Writing Program co-sponsor this annual event to help students share their work with communities and to prepare for the Dobin Prize application. Contact carrlemke@princeton.edu with questions. 
 
You can also read the short reports of previous Thesis Prize winners.