Student CPT Unveils Campus Being a Difference Award

NASBA's Center for the Public Trust (CPT) established its Being a Difference Award in 2006 to honor deserving individuals for their exceptional contributions to social responsibility and ethical leadership in business. Past recipients include Fortune 500 executives and Olympic athletes.

CPT not only recognizes such contributions, it is making its own contributions to positively affect ethical leadership. With six student chapters and counting, the Student CPT program is teaching what it means to be an ethical leader at the collegiate level by providing an environment where ethical business behaviors and ideas can flourish.

Through chapter meetings, participation in the annual Student Leadership Conference and community involvement, faculty advisors and members of the Student CPT are doing their part to make a difference in their schools and community. For this reason, it was decided by CPT leadership that the students and faculty who work so diligently to promote ethical business behavior are deserving of recognition, and so began the Campus Being a Difference Award program.

Each year, the Student CPT will honor one student and one faculty member on each chapter's campus who positively impacts the college or university by displaying strong, ethical leadership. The first campus to participate in the award program is Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., which will announce its winners in a ceremony May 4.

Recipients of the award are those who have shown exemplary conduct with students, faculty and the community, have taken the lead or provided significant support to ethical practices or programs on campus and exhibit personal values and actions that demonstrate integrity and ethics, among other criteria.

Amy Walters, CPT Manager of Programs, believes this award is important because it teaches students to recognize when someone is displaying ethical leadership at any level.

"The Campus Being a Difference Award provokes the students to learn to recognize someone who displays ethical leadership, which is in support of the mission of the Student CPT," she said.

The 2012-2013 nomination period is now open. If you are a Student CPT member or supporter, make sure to submit your nomination for those individuals who are "Being a Difference" on your campus. The nomination form and instructions are available on the Student CPT website.