On Tuesday November 4th, the rectores of VU and UvA awarded the fourth AYA Recognition & Reward Award. The awards are intended to reward academics from both VU and UvA, who perform exceptionally in fields of Teaching, Social Impact or Academic Community Support.
These activities get insufficient recognition in academia, while they are vital for a well-functioning university.
AYA has received over 25 nominations this year, more or less equally distributed among both universities and spread across the different faculties. Out of these many prize worthy nominees this year, AYA chose the following three winners:
- Category: Teaching – Christer Guldemond, VU, School of Business & Economics, Department of Management & Organization, Strategic Management Section. Christer was acknowledged for his enthusiasm and deep passion for teaching and his unique emphasis on enhancing students’ learning experiences while fostering their development as thoughtful and responsible members of society.
- Category: Societal Impact – Rosa de Jong, UvA, Amsterdam School of Historical Studies. Rosa was recognized for her initiative and dedication in fully digitizing the Neve Shalom Archive of the Israelite community in Suriname, transforming a largely forgotten chapter of Dutch history into a globally accessible and visible resource.
- Category: Academic community support – Mirjam Vermeulen, UvA, Department of Clinical Psychology. Miriam was appreciated for creating a safe and supportive environment in the team so everyone feels seen and heard, where difficult conversations can be had, and where both fun and hard times can be shared.
AYA Recognition & Rewards Award
AYA welcomes and supports the current attention to Recognition & Rewards in Dutch academia and is committed to furthering forms of excellence and academic community care that are often overlooked in the current system. In line with this commitment, AYA has launched the award aimed at academic staff at UvA and VU whose exceptional contributions to the academy might remain below the radar, but nevertheless are essential for a healthy university, be it in the form of teaching, societal impact, or of academic community support as a colleague, teacher, supervisor or mentor. Three prizes (of 2000 EUR each) in three different categories were awarded, to be used by the winners as allocated personal budget that they can spend as they see fit within the university context.