2024 Robert W. Crawford Young Professional Award

Check back for more details about the 2025 NRPA Awards.
Get A Reminder about the 2025 Nomination Period

The Robert W. Crawford Young Professional Award is presented to an individual who has shown qualities and skills needed to attain positions of leadership in the field of parks and recreation through their contributions to advancing the field, their creativity in creating or managing programs, and their participation in professional organizations, such as NRPA.

The nomination deadline is March 29, 2024.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Nominee must be an NRPA member.
• Nominee must be 35 years of age or younger (at time of nomination due date) OR have 5 - 7 years of experience in the park and recreation field.
• Certification through national program (preferred)
• Exhibit outstanding service to the field of parks and recreation
• Provide effective leadership in the field of parks and recreation in research, advocacy, or community efforts to advance the field
• Have served as a speaker, moderator, or panel member for state or national conference, school, or workshop; or
• Submitted an article for publication for a professional media (i.e., state or national magazine).

Application Materials:

• Answers to the questions provided in the application form
• Short essay responses (no more than 250 words for each) provided by the nominator to the following questions:
  • Describe how the nominee has shown leadership skills by communicating park and recreation benefits, setting direction, innovative ideas, and/or effective decision making. Describe the effectiveness of the nominee in promoting ideas or vision.
  • Describe how the nominee has shown responsibility for exemplary advancement of the recreation and parks profession in their agency, state or national level. Cite specific examples.
  • Describe the candidates accomplishments, including awards, commendations, honors, or professional advancement through their work in park and recreation. Describe any involvement in NRPA, Networks, state and regional associations, advocacy efforts, community outreach, and volunteer opportunities.
  • Describe the candidates contributions to the park, recreation, and leisure field, and why they are worthy of national recognition. Examples of contributions are: research, advocacy, and community efforts to advance the field, developing service through creative program development.
• A resume including work, education and volunteer experiences.
• Two letters of recommendation
• Optional - one additional supplemental item which highlights the nominee's efforts and achievements

Nomination Instructions:

• All nominations must be received by NRPA no later than 11:59 p.m. EST on March 29, 2024.
• Nominator may only nominate using this official nomination form. Self nominations will not be accepted.
• All materials must be submitted electronically using this survey format. Supplemental materials must be submitted in either Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format and included with the application.
• Applicants must have or create an NRPA login account to complete an application.
• Supplemental material file types include .pdf, .doc or .docx as noted on form.
• Nomination is automatically disqualified if it does not meet criteria, submission instructions of if the responses are over the word limit.
• This format has a save and continue feature that is located at the bottom of the question pages.

Terms and Conditions:

• NRPA reserves the right to disqualify an application if in NRPA’s sole discretion it determines that the application does not contain truthful information, is contrary to the standards or policies of NRPA, or violates applicable laws, or if the nominee acted contrary to the standards or policies of NRPA, or violated applicable law or could reflect negatively on NRPA.
• NRPA reserves the right to revoke any award or prize if in NRPA’s sole discretion it determines that the awardee acted contrary to the standards or policies of NRPA or acted in violation of applicable laws or could reflect negatively on NRPA.

For more information, contact the NRPA Awards Program at awards@nrpa.org.

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