Nazareth receives the 2025 Higher Education Excellence and Distinction Award
For the second straight year, Nazareth University is a recipient of the 2025 Higher Education Excellence and Distinction (HEED) Award from Insight Into Academia magazine. It nationally recognizes U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to academic excellence, belonging, and community-building across all levels of campus life. Nazareth will be featured, along with 60 other recipients, in the October 2025 issue of Insight Into Academia magazine.
“To earn the HEED Award two years in a row is a testament to Nazareth’s commitment to its campus culture of inclusion,” said Nazareth President Beth Paul. “The HEED award was awarded only after an extremely comprehensive and rigorous application that truly proves what Nazareth is all about–we are all changemakers.”
Some of Nazareth’s programs that earned them the HEED award include:
Nazareth’s Well-Being Collective plays a significant role in improving student retention and graduation rates by fostering a supportive and health-conscious campus environment. Established through a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant, the Well-Being Collective aims to advance alcohol, drug, and suicide prevention initiatives.
Nazareth’s continuing student-centered redesign process is funded by a multi-year U.S. Department of Education Title III grant, to help address gaps in retention and graduation rates.
LifePrep@Naz is an innovative program designed to provide students with intellectual and developmental disabilities with a college experience, strengthening their life skills, vocational skills, self-sufficiency, and independence. It has been a success for more than a decade on the Nazareth campus — it’s a collaborative relationship among Nazareth, Victor Central School District, and The Arc of Monroe. LifePrep students audit Nazareth classes, have a Nazareth undergraduate student mentor, and are true members of the university community. Graduates of LifePrep@Naz now have the opportunity to continue auditing Nazareth classes after graduation.
“We take a detailed and somewhat holistic approach to reviewing each application in determining who will be named a HEED Award recipient. Our standards are high, and we look for institutions where academic excellence and belonging are woven into the work being done every day across their campus”, says Lenore Pearlstein, Co-Publisher of Insight into Academia magazine.
For more information on the HEED Award, visit insightintoacademia.com
Contact
Julie Long | Chief PR Officer | jlong2@naz.edu | (585) 389-2456 | (585) 781-8186 (cell)
Nazareth University is an inclusive community of inspired learners, educators, and changemakers who for 100 years have been driven by a bold commitment to action, empathy, equity, and leading innovation for the common good. Impact experiences are at the heart of a Nazareth education, preparing each student to discover within themselves the potential to cultivate positive change in their life's work, in any career field, and in a world that is constantly evolving and infinitely interconnected.
Our broad academic offerings present a range of study options typical of larger universities, yet achieved in our supportive campus culture. Nearly 2,100 undergrad and 600 graduate students enroll in degree and certificate programs and engage in collaborative, transformative learning experiences, preparing for the professions and society of today and tomorrow. In a learning community that purposefully integrates liberal arts and professional programs, Nazareth University graduates are able to launch a lifetime of impactful leadership in communities and workplaces near and far.
