WestFest, has been selected by the Office of Outreach & Engagement as one of Ohio State’s 2024 Programs of Excellence in Engaged Scholarship. Wayne Schlingman along with Cynthia Canan, Courtney Price, Jason Cervenec, Kimberly Winslow, and Michael Smoley comprise the planning committee for West Fest and the STEM Impact Collaborative. In recognition of being designated a Program of Excellence, WestFest will be featured in the Office of Outreach and Engagement communications and acknowledged at the Office of Outreach and Engagement annual awards luncheon. WestFest will also be featured in the Office of Outreach and Engagement's online Engagement Asset Map (forthcoming in summer 2024).

To support and promote high-impact engaged scholarship, the Office of Outreach and Engagement has instituted a process to certify programs of excellence in engaged scholarship. The certification process seeks to identify and certify projects annually that demonstrate excellence in community-engaged scholarship and meet the criteria of high-impact engaged scholarship. The following are awardees this year!

• Community Health Worker Training Program, College of Nursing
• LiFEsports, College of Social Work
• K'acha Willaykuna Andean and Amazonian Indigenous Arts & Humanities Collaboration, College of Arts and Sciences
• SciAccess, College of Arts and Sciences
• From Classroom to Clinic: Enhanced Public Health Dental Training and a School-Based Pediatric Dentistry Model, College of Dentistry
• WestFest, Stem Impact Collaborative
• PALS & Marion Mentors, OSU Marion/College of Arts and Sciences
• ADHOC - Coalition for Brain Health, College of Nursing
• Environmental Professionals Network, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
• Immigrants Make Columbus, College of Social Work
• Lord Denney's Players, College of Arts and Sciences
• Trees for All People, College of Engineering
• STEAM Rising, Office of Academic Affairs
• STEM Coding Initiative, College of Arts and Sciences/University Libraries/College of Education and Human Ecology
• Global Capstone, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
• Sustainability Capstone (Living Lab), College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
• Public Procurement Policy and Wage Theft Prevention, Moritz College of Law
• Pesapane Lab Tick Pathogen Program, College of Veterinary Medicine/College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences