Nominations Now Open for the 2025 CCCU Young Alumni Award

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is now accepting nominations for the 2025 Young Alumni Award.  

The Young Alumni Award honors an individual who graduated from a CCCU member institution within the past decade and whose work demonstrates uncommon leadership or success that reflects the values of Christian higher education. 

“Christian colleges and universities aim to educate the whole person, equipping students to use their intelligence, their time and their God-given gifts to serve as the hands and feet of Christ in a broken world,” said Shirley Hoogstra, president of the CCCU. “The Young Alumni Award provides such incredible evidence of Christian higher education’s impact. Each year, we are able to share stories about bright, compassionate, determined alumni who are utilizing their education to transform communities around the world.” 

Previous recipients include Lindy Williamson Cleveland (Samford University), founder of Unless U; Emmanual McNeely (Palm Beach Atlantic University), cofounder of the Dr. M.D. Project; and Angie Thomas (Belhaven University), author of the New York Times bestseller The Hate U Give. Read more about these and other past winners here.  

Nominations must be submitted by the institution’s alumni relations office, and each institution may submit one nomination per year. For more information about the award guidelines, the nomination process and the selection process, please read the overview document here. 

Each nominee submitted for consideration will be highlighted on the CCCU’s official social media channels throughout the month of October in celebration of Christian Higher Education Month. Internal and external committee reviews will determine the winner, who will be honored at the CCCU’s 2025 Presidents Conference from January 29-31 in Washington, D.C. 

The deadline for nominations is August 31, 2024. The Young Alumni Award winner, as well as the winner’s alma mater, will be notified later in the fall. 

About the CCCU 

The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of more than 185 Christian institutions around the world. Since 1976, the CCCU has served as the leading voice of Christian higher education. With campuses across the globe, including more than 150 in the U.S. and Canada and more than 30 from an additional 19 countries, CCCU institutions are accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities whose missions are Christ-centered and rooted in the historic Christian faith. Most also have curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. The CCCU’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help our institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth.  

###