Auerbach Academic Scholarship Award
This is the highest academic honor of the Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy and is based upon the student’s academic scholarship including the active pursuit of knowledge related to the discipline of occupational therapy. This award recognizes the outstanding academic scholarship of a student and is named in honor of Dr. S. Pearson Auerbach who significantly promoted the establishment of the Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy.

Business Leadership Award
This award recognizes the outstanding graduating student in the one of the School of Business graduate programs, as determined by a vote of the graduate faculty in School of Business. This award represents the highest honor and recognition bestowed upon a graduate of the master's program. 

J. Jerome Fargen Award for Educational Excellence
This award, named after a former professor and director of the graduate programs, is presented to a graduate of the Master of Arts in Education program who demonstrates personal and professional integrity, as well as success in one or more of the following areas: scholastic achievement, community service, and educational accomplishments.

Jillian Johnson Award
This award recognizes the outstanding graduating Master in Social Work student. The recipient shall have demonstrated an excellent academic record and the potential for significant contributions to the social work profession, with a particular commitment to the areas of social justice and public social services. The award is named for Jillian Johnson, former chair of the School of Social Work.

Mother Catharine Spalding, SCN, Nursing Leadership Award
Named in honor of Mother Catharine Spalding, SCN, co-founder of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, this award honors a graduate of the Master of Science in Nursing program who has affirmed human dignity and inspired creativity and vision in nursing leadership.

Vickie Bohannon Owsley Advanced Practice Nursing Award

This award recognizes a graduate of the Master of Science in Nursing program who has demonstrated caring and competence in advanced practice nursing as exemplified in the life of Vickie Bohannon Owsley, D.S.N., A.R.N.P., a graduate of the School of Nursing.

Caring With Dignity Graduate Award
This award was established by the faculty of the School of Nursing to recognize the commitment to the principles of human dignity, ethics, and caring in nursing, which was the hallmark of the tenure of Brother Ignatius Perkins, OP, D.N.Sc., M.A.Ed., R.N., K.H.S., F.A.A.N., former chair of the School of Nursing and Dean of the College of Health and Natural Sciences.

Eileen Egan, SCN, Graduate Student Award
This award, established in 2007, is named in honor of Dr. Eileen Egan, SCN, who served as the president of Spalding University for 25 years, from 1969 to 1994. She was instrumental in the development of many of our graduate programs, and, ultimately, the University's designation as a doctoral/research university.

The criterion for this award includes completions of a final project that, through integration of scholarship and service to the community, exemplifies the mission of Spalding University.

Occupational Therapy Professional Accountability Award
This award is presented to the student who has consistently demonstrated ASOT's professional accountability model. Professional accountability allows for the effective, efficient and ethical actions required within the learning process for occupational therapy and the profession itself. The steps of accountability include identifying need for action, developing ownership of the actions, engaging in problem-solving processes, implementing plans and actions, and reflecting upon one's actions for improvement in future actions. Professional accountability in not acting solely to meet the needs of self, but fostering the goals of the group and other individuals for the development of collective efficiency.

Occupational Therapy Transformational Learner Award
Transformative learning encompasses great change. Change in how one perceives oneself, change in how one views the world, and changes in how one acts upon the world. It involves a deep, structural shift in the basic premises of thought, feelings, and actions. It is a shift of consciousness that dramatically and irreversibly alters one’s way of being in the world. It involves altering one’s understanding of relationships, one’s visions of alternative approaches to living; and our sense of possibilities for social justice and peace and personal joy. This award is designed to honor the student who has overcome great odds; met challenges along the journey of learning and experienced a truly transformational life experience.

Strickland Community Impact Award
This award is named in honor of the founders of the Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy (ASOT), Drs. Randy and Laura Strickland. They were instrumental in the creation and continuance of ASOT programming over the last three decades, leaving a legacy impacting the occupational therapy profession at the local community, state, and national levels. With their dedication and leadership, ASOT successfully transitioned to an entry-level doctorate, providing a way for students to leave a larger community impact. This award is presented to the student whose doctoral capstone experience produced an innovative and creative project that resulted in significant, long-lasting positive change within the capstone agency and the larger community. The winning project should also contribute to the field of occupational therapy by modeling the profession’s vision for the future. The criterion for this award is designed to acknowledge the student who, through the DCE project outcomes, demonstrated active involvement in evidence-based practice, professional development, and advocacy. This DCE project also includes the synthesis of advanced knowledge in a focused practice area in one or more of the following: clinical practice, scholarship, administration, leadership, program and policy development, education, research, and theory development.

Phi Alpha
Spalding University is affiliated with Phi Alpha National Social Honor Society through its chapter, Rho Xi. The purpose of Phi Alpha is to encourage superior scholarship in social work education and to advance excellence in social work practice. To be eligible, graduate students must be admitted to the School of Social Work and meet Association of College Honor Societies (ACHS) certification standards.  These include having completed nine semester hours of required social work courses and at least 37.5% of the total hours/credits required for the degree (whichever is later achieved) and ranking in the top 35% of their class.  

Psi Chi
Spalding University is affiliated with Psi Chi, the National Honor Society in Psychology. The society is open to both undergraduate students who are in the upper 15 percent of their class and graduate students who maintain a minimum of B in their course work.

Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing
Sigma Theta Tau, the International Honor Society of Nursing through the University's local chapter, Iota Gamma, recognizes superior achievement, encourages leadership development, fosters high nursing standards, stimulates creative and scholarly endeavors in the professional practice of nursing, and strengthens commitment to the ideals and purposes of the profession. Membership is an honor granted to students in baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs who have demonstrated excellence in their performance.

Eligibility criteria for nomination to membership: undergraduate students must have completed one-half of the nursing curriculum, rank in the upper 35 percent of their class, and have at least a 3.00 grade point average; graduate students must have an earned BSN, completed at least one-fourth of required graduate nursing credits, earned a grade point average significantly higher than the minimum requirements for graduation (ordinarily 3.5), and demonstrated leadership potential.

MSW Faculty Learner as Teacher Award
Recognizes a student who has contributed to an exceptional level to the learning environment.

Transformational Learner Award
For outstanding investment in the educational process and demonstrated growth consistent with the values of the Social Work profession.

Jillian and Knowlton Johnson Scholarship Fund Award
This Scholarship was established in 2000 through a generous donation from Dr. Jillian Johnson, Retired School of Social Work Chair and Founding Director of the MSW program, and Dr. Knowlton Johnson, an internationally established Senior Researcher. The award recipient is selected based on an outstanding Culminating Project of an MSW student that pursues research as it applies to social issues for policy-making that benefits or furthers human well-being.