In 2011, I was named an Emerging Professional Annuit Coeptis by the American College Personnel Association (ACPA).  While it took me about a year to learn how to say the name of the award, I immediately embraced what the award symbolized: a spirit of personal and professional sharing, high good humor and thoughtful intellectual debate.

The Annuit Coeptis Award is a national award that honors three senior professionals and five emerging professionals at a dinner where there can be wide-ranging discussion and exchange about professional issues. The dinner carries on a tradition established by Professor Philip A. Tripp and Ursula Delworth who dearly loved to challenge their contemporaries and junior colleagues in a spirit of personal and professional sharing, high good humor and thoughtful intellectual debate. The Latin phrase, annuit coeptis, is printed on the back of a one dollar bill and reflects Dr. Tripp's and Dr. Delworth's optimism for the future of the profession by suggesting that "He has smiled upon that which we have begun."