Events: Kopp Awards

Awards of $200 are given to two students who demonstrate excellent research—and significant learning about research—in their final projects for courses with a Bibliographic Research in Writing (BRW) designation. The awards were established in 2011 by the Aubrey R. Watzek Library in memory of Jim Kopp (pronounced "cup"), who was the director of the Library from 1999 until his death in 2010. While initially connected to the first-year Core, they shifted in 2020 with the changing curriculum to retain an emphasis on the explicit teaching of research methods and approaches.

As the director of the library, Jim provided leadership during a decade of unprecedented growth and change. Jim was a kind and humorous man with a passion for scholarly inquiry and a dedication to the library's role in the liberal arts education.

The awards are sponsored by the library and supported by the office of General Education and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Donations to support these awards are much appreciated and may be made via the Library's Online Giving Form.

As BRW-designated courses are offered year-round, there will be two application deadlines, at the end of the fall and spring semester respectively. Applications from both the fall and spring will be reviewed in the summer, with two awards given to the strongest work from the entire year.

Applications will be accepted beginning on December 11. The application will close on December 21 at 11:59 p.m. (Pacific).

Applicants will be asked to submit the following components:

1. A copy of their final research project, as submitted for a grade. Applicants should take care to remove their name from all documents, replacing it with a student ID number. This allows for a maximally blind review process. (Please note that students who win the award will be asked to submit a document with their name reinstated.)
2. Either a copy of the assignment description, or a brief description of the parameters of the assignment as given to the class.
3. A short essay (approximately 750-1000 words) reflecting on what the student has learned through the process of the research project. This might be structured as a letter to another student preparing to write their first major college research paper, or take any other form that allows for a candid exploration of the writer’s development as a researcher. This essay is a crucial component of the application, and should not be treated as an afterthought. On this document, too, a student ID number should be used in place of a name.

After the application is submitted, a brief notice will be sent to the student's professor.

Complete Award Guidelines