May 18, 2021
Dear Directors of CAPPA Member Programs:
The National Student and Thought Leadership Awards in Public Administration, a joint initiative of the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (CAPPA) and the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC), aims to recognize talent in Canadian public administration and policy programs at the regional and national levels. It highlights excellence in public administration and showcases the top talent emerging from Canadian programs each year. This year’s competition recognizes outstanding students from the 2020-21 academic year.
Criteria and Procedures
1. Selecting winners:
CAPPA members will solicit and judge entries (best paper, best professional report, or best graduating student, however defined) from their students, and select a winner in the undergraduate and/or graduate levels (as applicable to each department). Representatives from the IPAC regional group may be asked to help with the adjudication. Together, the students selected from each institution are the National Student Leadership Award winners.
2. Giving local recognition:
We encourage programs, departments and schools to hold recognition events for the winners. You may also want to approach your local IPAC group to provide recognition. In some cases the local regional group may have more than one university in their catchment area, and the range of winners will be broader.
3. National recognition on web sites:
Winners will be celebrated by IPAC and CAPPA on their respective websites. The names, contact information, brief bios, and synopsis of the accomplishment of the winners should be forwarded to CAPPA at the contact point noted below. The deadline for receiving these packages has been extended to June 30, 2021.
4. The 73rd Annual IPAC National Conference, August 23-24, 2021 (Virtual):
• The winners from every program will receive an invitation to the IPAC 2021 conference. The IPAC Endowment Fund will pay the registration fees for the winners. (As the conference is virtual this year, there are no travel/accommodation costs.)
• All of the National Student Award winners will be asked to participate in an E-poster session describing their best piece of research or analysis, prior to the IPAC 2021 conference.
• A jury will select and rank the three best E-poster presentations for the National Student Thought Leadership Awards. The top three winners will receive a cash award and will be recognized on the IPAC and CAPPA web sites.
We look forward to receiving notification of your top students by June 30, 2021.
For your School/Department’s nomination, please include:
• nominator’s name and contact information
• nominee’s name and contact information (1 nominee per School/Department, please);
• a brief bio (no more than 100 words); and
• synopsis of accomplishment (i.e., top student, best, paper, project or research, contest winner, etc.)
Please forward all nominations to youngb@uvic.cayoungb@uvic.ca andrea.rounce@umanitoba.ca . If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Belle Young at or Andrea Rounce at or 1-204-891-0501.
Brooke Jeffrey
CAPPA/ACPAP President
Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration
David Fulford
Chief Executive Officer
Institute of Public Administration of Canada