SSA Awards

SSA Best Awards

Each year, the Secular Student Alliance presents awards to those affiliates that have excelled in a particular area. These awards include an attractive plaque, a cash prize for the group to put toward future endeavors, and an invitation to present at our annual conference.

The Best Awards are given once per year and will be presented at our Annual Conference in July (you need not attend the conference in order to win...though you should attend anyway because the conference is going to rock every face!). Winning groups are invited to present at our conference, and will be featured in the eMpirical, our electronic newsletter.

The Best Awards mirror the Secular Student Alliance's five core focus areas: Education, Service, Activism, Community and Cooperation. Each of these awards comes with a $300 prize. We also offer an Affiliate of the Year award to one college group and one high school group. The college award includes a $500 prize, and the high school award includes a $300 prize.

This year, we are expanding our awards to recognize outstanding individual efforts as well. We are offering an award to recognize outstanding work by faculty/staff advisors. On top of that, we will be offering Individual Activist awards to students who have done excellent work independent of a student group. We will be offering up to three awards to college students and up to three awards to high school students. Each award will include a cash prize.

The application period for this year has closed.

The awards for this year are:

• Affiliate of the Year (college) - $500
• Affiliate of the Year (high school) - $300
  
• Best Educator - $300
  
• Best Service - $300
• Best Activism - $300
  
• Best Community - $300
  
• Best Cooperation - $300
• Best Faculty/Staff Advisor
  

The awards available for individuals now come with a reward of up to $500! This year they are:

• Best Individual Activist (High School) - up to three awards
• Best Individual Activist (College) - up to three awards

Here are some examples of projects that won in the past:

2010 Best Award Winners (All Categories, 2010)
2009 Best Award Winners (All Categories, 2009)
2008 Best Award Winners (All Categories, 2008)
University of Kentucky SHIFT Wins Best Service Project Award (2007)
Kansas University's SOMA wins SSA Best Affiliate (2007)
SSA Best New Affiliate: Bruin Alliance of Skeptics & Secularists (2007)
Freethought Books for Prisoners (Service, 2006)
Toronto Secular Alliance wins SSA Best Website Award (2006)
Drive Time Evolution Education (Media, 2006)
2005 Best Award Winners (All Categories, 2005)

In 2004 James Madison University Freethinkers received an the Best website Award. The University of Kansas Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics was given the Best Media award for the newspaper article in the Lawrence Journal-World featuring their efforts and publicizing campus Freethought. Students for Freethought at the Ohio State University received an award for the best service project for raising over $1,000 at the Central Ohio AIDS-Walk. The Michigan State University Freethinker Alliance was honored as the best SSA affiliate for 2003-2004 for their work persuading their city council in East Lansing, Michigan to honor "Church-State Separation Week."

SSA Freethought Backbone Award

At each annual conference of the Secular Student Alliance, the SSA presents the Freethought Backbone Award to an individual within the freethought movement who is a guide and inspiration for secular students and student groups. This person has demonstrated a commitment to the secular values of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human-based ethics.

In the past this award has been presented to such notable figures as Larry Jones, founder of the Institute for Humanist Studies; Herb Silverman, president and founder of the Secular Coalition for America; Dan Barker, Co-President of the Freedom from Religion Foundation; and Former Director of the Secular Coalition for America, Lori Lipman Brown. The winner of the award is invited to speak at the 2010 Summer Conference, receives a shiny plaque, and will be featured in an upcoming issue of the eMpirical our electronic Newsletter.

SSA Freethought Backbone Award Winners:

Click Here to find out more about the SSA's conferences!