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: $250, Second Prize: $100, Third Prize: $50.

Nominate Your Thesis

ProCES invites students who have completed independent work on a community-engaged topic to submit their thesis for consideration. Applications are due on Friday, April 30, 2021 by 12 noon. To apply, email the following documents to proces@princeton.edu.  

  1. Your thesis or junior paper;
  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 JP/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 your 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 your thesis?
 
Join in a virtual workshop on Sharing Your Thesis with Activists and Practitioners on April 19, 2021 at 12:30 p.m. (EDT).  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.  Register in advance here.  Contact proces@princeton.edu with questions. 
 
You can also read the short reports of previous Thesis Prize winners.