A Brief History of the Community Partnership Awards
The creation of the first College of Education Awards Banquet in May, 1989 is the story of many sincere people trying to do a good thing…and getting it right.
During the 1980’s, California State University campuses began to do more individual fundraising. Most faculty were comfortable in the classroom, but there was not much enthusiasm for fund raising. In the College of Education, the idea of an awards banquet was more comfortable. Student-centered, an awards banquet was a way of passing the generosity of our community directly to the students in a festive evening of celebration. The banquet made the most sense.
With no resources and practically no experience with putting an awards banquet together, the College was lucky to have in its ranks John Cotsakos, a new member of the part-time faculty. John stayed up late one night making plans for the first banquet. He showed up in my office the next morning with a stack of poster boards under his arm and broke into an animated presentation with diagrams, goals, time-lines and strategies.
One day on his way home from supervising student teachers, John pulled his car over and dashed into a local store because he “got a feeling.” Thirty minutes later he walked out with a commitment from our first awards banquet sponsor. Gradually, John cobbled together small bits and pieces, finding interested people in the community, meeting with groups of faculty and staff, organizing, motivating, inspiring.
Soon professors Jose Cintron and Maurice Poe joined with John to form a team that would energize the awards banquets for many years. A Banquet Committee was formed from volunteers: Cory Charter, Jan Cross, Kal Gezi, Cid Gunston-Parks, Suzy Lunstead, Bob Malugani, Fred Simonelli and Janet Tisue. Amazingly, John acquired donations from people in the community to cover the cost of the first event.
Each year thereafter, the banquet grew. There was important involvement by committed faculty and staff who meticulously nurtured the development of the banquet from year to year. The result is the signature community event for the College of Education.
Reflections by Steve Gregorich, Dean Emeritus, College of Education