NCHC Ron Brandolini Award for Excellence at a Two-Year Institution

This award, presented by NCHC and the Valencia College Foundation, recognizes a two-year college honors director or faculty member for their outstanding contributions to the honors community. The selected winner will receive $500, along with an engraved plaque. The award will be presented at the NCHC Annual Conference.

Ron Brandolini, who passed away on June 27, 2012, was the founding director of Valencia College’s honors program in the 1980s, serving in that capacity for 20 years. During that time he recruited top students and teachers for the program, elevating the program’s stature throughout the country. Ron was a frequent presenter at NCHC conferences and a session leader for Beginning in Honors for many years. He served on the Executive Committee and the Two-Year College Committee as well as serving on the conference planning committee for at least five years. Ron also served as the president of the Florida Collegiate Honors Council.

Please complete the application below to nominate an outstanding honors director or honors faculty member for the NCHC Ron Brandolini Award. The application requires detail about contributions to teaching in honors and involvement in honors beyond the home institution. A total of three letters of support, from the applicant’s institution as well as faculty colleagues or students, are required.

Please consider applying or nominating a deserving honors educator. NCHC is committed to recognizing our two-year college colleagues who strengthen honors education.


2024 Winner

The National Collegiate Honors Council announces Professor Carrie Pritchett of Brazosport College as recipient of the 2024 NCHC Ron Brandolini Award for Excellence at a Two-Year Institution. This award recognizes a two-year college honors director or faculty member for their outstanding contributions to the honors community.

Carrie Pritchett, Brazosport College

Carrie Pritchett

NCHC colleague and President-Elect of the Great Plains Honors Council, Ebonie Hill shares the following about Carrie, “Ms. Pritchett is what Honors is all about: professional, enthusiastic, a lifelong learner, a supporter of continuous learning, and a trailblazer for change. She has left her mark on her institution, our regional Honors body, and NCHC in various ways, and she is still giving to these entities from her very full cup.”

As an Associate Professor of History at Brazosport College, Carrie Pritchett has served as the Director of the Honors Program since 2010. In this role, Carrie has continued to develop her program into a strong two-year college program in the Great Plains Honors Council region. Her students consistently play a prominent role in the region, and her ability to motivate high school students to present high quality research at a collegiate conference is a testament to her commitment to teaching.

Beyond her work as a professor and Honors Director, Carrie’s scholarship focuses on honors education, and the challenges facing two-year colleges. Tackling such topics as dual credit enrollment and extending the Honors Program to workforce students are extremely important, yet sometimes overlooked, topics in honors education. In addition to regularly presenting at the NCHC annual conference, Carrie has also presented on honors education at such diverse conferences as the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges. As her teaching and scholarship activities indicate, Carrie is an exceptional teacher and scholar in honors education at a two-year institution.

In addition to being a dedicated teacher and scholar, Carrie is also a leader in the honors community. She is currently serving as the Secretary for the National Collegiate Honors Council and is actively involved in NCHC. She co-chairs the Basic Characteristics of Honors Programs and Colleges Review ad Hoc Committee that created the Shared Principles and Practices, as well as the Developing in Honors Conference Selection Committee. She also serves as a Portz Fellowship Committee Reviewer, and as a member of the Two-Year College and Awards and Grants Committees. Previously, she also served as a member of the Teaching and Learning Committee from 2013 to 2020.

Carrie’s commitment to service and honors education is not limited solely to NCHC, as she is also deeply involved in her regional organization, the Great Plains Honors Council. She is currently serving as the Treasurer, a position she has held since 2013. Carrie has also served as the Secretary and President, and has been an integral member of the executive committee over the last decade. This commitment extends beyond her regional organization as she also serves as a member of the Gulf Coast Intercollegiate Honors Council.

Dr. Isaiah Schauer, colleague and Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Brazosport College, shares “Carrie is one of our dazzling treasures among the fully tenured faculty core at Brazosport College. Carrie exemplifies peer leadership, collegiality, and grace under stress, all while sustaining a masterfully wry sense of humor […] I can think of no one more deserving of the honor of receiving the Brandolini Award than Professor Carrie Pritchett.”

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2024 Nominations open March 1, 2024 and close June 15, 2024.

Applications will be available via the form below or at this link.