The John V. Roach Honors College Board hopes to increase the visibility of its program by honoring a distinguished individual with a new award.

The new Board of Visitors Founders Award will highlight an individual whose achievements exemplify the mission and values of the honors college.

The honors college is encouraging members of the TCU community to submit nominations for the award.

“It’s an open process. We need the help of faculty, students, and alumni to do this,” said George Henderson, a TCU graduate who is serving on the 2015-2016 award committee. The committee will select the winner of the award.

The award is open to an individual in any field or enterprise who inspires, challenges and exemplifies critical thinking skills, according to an announcement from the honors college.

Although the nominee does not need to be a TCU graduate, he or she should demonstrate a continuing connection and commitment to the Honors College and TCU, according to the announcement.

“In our minds, it represents the highest ideals of the honors college and our greater campus community.” said Dr. Dan Williams, a faculty member on the award committee.

Williams, an honors professor of humanities and director of the TCU Press, said picking a winner among the nominees will be a “difficult process because there are so many splendid candidates.”

Williams said he hopes the winner, who will be invited to visit campus next fall, will have the opportunity to meet and mentor current students.

“I hope students are inspired and motivated by the people they meet,” Williams said. “This is a real opportunity to celebrate people who have achieved wonderful things in their lives in various ways and to get them more involved on campus.”

Landon Hendrickson, a sophomore honors college student who is on the award committee, said although he hopes the award will bring publicity to the honors college, its main purpose is to inspire and help current TCU students.

“We wanted to provide students with someone who was visible and someone who could be used as an example,” Hendrickson said. “It’ll be really neat to see how this first winner takes it and runs with it.”

Nominations are open until Feb. 26. The winner of the award will be announced in April.