Deadline: Friday, April 11, 2025
The Division of Graduate Studies and Office of the Provost are pleased to recognize a select group of faculty, staff, and graduate students for excellence in graduate education. With these awards, the Division of Graduate Studies hopes to recognize that strong teaching, mentorship, and academic leadership and coordination are essential components of strong graduate programs and quality undergraduate education.
Excellence in Mentorship Award: Faculty Mentors
This award recognizes faculty members who provide outstanding mentorship of graduate students. Mentorship includes fostering the academic and professional excellence of students by using mentoring practices that are:
- Culturally responsive: A culturally responsive mentor recognizes the different experiences and identities within the mentoring relationship, honors those differences, and reinforces their mentee’s self-efficacy. Mentees are in charge of their own learning, with mentors operating as guides or coaches.
- Network based: A network model of mentoring involves a rich constellation of formal and informal relationships with a variety of professional colleagues, each supporting the mentee according to their own competencies, skills, and lived experiences.
- Reciprocal: Reciprocal mentorship recognizes that mentees can bring complementary knowledge and experiences to the relationship. It functions as a creative and dynamic alliance in which all parties regularly engage in identifying, communicating, and investing time working toward developmental goals.
- Adaptive: Mentoring changes with the needs of mentees, reflecting the mentees’ current career stage, professional goals, and need for guidance. Over time, adaptive mentoring relationships develop beyond transactional, hierarchical structures into ones in which all parties move between expert and learner roles as appropriate.
This Excellence Award includes:
- A $500 award in their name granted to a graduate student in their department
- Recognition at the Distinguished Teaching and Research Faculty Excellence Awards ceremony
Excellence in Mentorship Award: Graduate Student Mentors
This award recognizes graduate students who provide outstanding mentorship to undergraduate or graduate students. Mentorship includes fostering the academic and professional excellence of students by using mentoring practices that are:
- Culturally responsive: A culturally responsive mentor recognizes the different experiences and identities within the mentoring relationship, honors those differences, and reinforces their mentee’s self-efficacy. Mentees are in charge of their own learning, with mentors operating as guides or coaches.
- Network based: A network model of mentoring involves a rich constellation of formal and informal relationships with a variety of professional colleagues, each supporting the mentee according to their own competencies, skills, and lived experiences.
- Reciprocal: Reciprocal mentorship recognizes that mentees can bring complementary knowledge and experiences to the relationship. It functions as a creative and dynamic alliance in which all parties regularly engage in identifying, communicating, and investing time working toward developmental goals.
- Adaptive: Mentoring changes with the needs of mentees, reflecting the mentees’ current career stage, professional goals, and need for guidance. Over time, adaptive mentoring relationships develop beyond transactional, hierarchical structures into ones in which all parties move between expert and learner roles as appropriate.
This Excellence Award includes:
- A $500 award
- Recognition at the Distinguished Teaching and Research Faculty Excellence Awards ceremony
Excellence Award for Directors of Graduate Studies
The director of graduate studies is a faculty member charged with managing the essentials of the graduate program. This may include oversight of, or involvement in, graduate student recruitment and admissions, orientation and training, fellowships and funding, and GE appointments, assignments, and supervision. Directors of Graduate Study lead the creation of graduate learning environments that are rigorous, inclusive, and support students professional development and excellence.
This Excellence Award includes:
- A $500 award in their name granted to a graduate student in their department
- Recognition at the Distinguished Teaching and Research Faculty Excellence Awards ceremony
Excellence Award for Graduate Coordinators
The graduate coordinator (in some departments this person may have a different title, such as graduate secretary or graduate program manager) is a staff member who provides support to the director of graduate studies, department head, and other faculty in the coordination of all graduate student related activities in the program including recruitment, admissions, GE appointments, tracking degree progress, and fellowship nominations. Graduate coordinators help keep students advancing academically and help cultivate an excellent and inclusive graduate learning environment.
This Excellence Award includes:
- A $500 award in their name granted to a graduate student in their department
- Recognition at the Directors of Graduate Study and Graduate Partners’ meetings
Excellence Award for Graduate Teaching
The Graduate Teaching Excellence Award is jointly sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Division of Graduate Studies, and the Division of Undergraduate Education and Student Success. It is designed to recognize outstanding teaching performance by experienced graduate employees (GEs) with at least 5 terms of experience as sole instructor, lab or discussion leader, who have demonstrated a commitment to developing their instructional skills, while at the same time excelling and making satisfactory progress in their academic degree program. Nomination and application details can be found at the scholarship and award website. This Excellence Award includes:
A $1,000 award