President's Award for Excellence in Service Learning: Alexis Pike, Founders Day Faculty Awards, Academic Year 2023-24. Portrait of Alexis Pike.

Alexis Pike

Alexis Pike, director of the School of Film and Photography, is the recipient of the President’s Award for Excellence in Service Learning. The award recognizes an individual who actively engages students in quality service learning. Through this, students apply their academic skills and knowledge to address the genuine needs of community organizations and come back with a greater understanding of their studies and a sense of civic responsibility. The award comes with an honorarium of $1,000.

Pike is an experienced photographer whose work has been featured in a variety of venues including the California Museum of Photography in Riverside, California, the Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon, Curitiba Biennial in Curitiba, Brazil, the Sun Valley Museum of Art in Ketchum, Idaho, and the Missoula Art Museum in Missoula, Montana. Her work has also been featured in Harper’s, Wired.com, Photo District News, Travel + Leisure, Surface, LensCulture, and her monograph Color Me Lucky published by Aint-Bad.

Service learning is a strong part of Pike’s teaching philosophy. MSU Community Portrait Day, where students take, edit and print holiday portraits for families, is one way Pike impacts the local community. Since the event's inception more than a decade ago, Community Portrait Day has benefitted hundreds of families while educating students who work on the event. The event allows students to develop as professionals while providing a valuable service free of charge to local families.