Outstanding Graduate Mentors | ASU Graduate College

The following ASU faculty are recipients of the Graduate College Outstanding Graduate Mentor award.:

	Joseph Cayer, Professor of Public Affairs (2007): "The most important aspect of mentoring is the reward of seeing students grow as individuals, academics, and professionals. the role of a mentor is a life-long role that results in sharing in the accomplishments of others."
	Sharon E. Robinson Kurpius, Professor of Counseling Psychology (2007): “I am proud of my graduates and would like to believe that I have made a difference in their lives. The most rewarding aspect of being a professor has been working with doctoral students and watching them evolve into competent, accomplished professionals and caring human beings who are mentoring others as I have tried to mentor them.”
	David MacKinnon, Professor of Psychology (2007): “My golden rule as a mentor is to treat students with respect, as I would like to be treated. This includes communicating criticism and praise as honestly and kindly as possible. It also includes respecting the student's life goals.”
	Keith W. Kintigh, Professor of Anthropology (2004): "Students can be transformed into successful professionals well before they finish their degrees, in part, because they reach an appropriate level of professional accomplishment, but also because they see that they have achieved the status of colleagues in the eyes of their mentors."
	Douglas C. Montgomery, Professor of Industrial Engineering (2004): "My objective is to develop the student as an independent scholar and researcher, capable of planning and conducting research of their own that will lead to advancing knowledge. I want to prepare them to compete intellectually with the leaders in the field, so that they can go on to successful, productive careers, and assume positions of leadership themselves."
	Peter Iverson, Regents' Professor of History (2003): "I say the four words over and over again. ‘You can do it,' I reiterate. You can complete that seminar paper. You can pass your comprehensive exams. You can give a paper at an important professional meeting. You can get that article published in a significant journal. You can finish that dissertation. You can get a good job."
	Howard J. Sullivan, Professor of Educational Technology (2002): "What I like most about my job as a professor is the opportunity to work one-on-one and in small groups with doctoral students. Doctoral students are bright. They are eager to learn. They have a definite goal in mind. The purpose of the mentoring part of my job, as I see it, is to help them attain that goal."
	O M Brack Jr., Professor of English (2000): "The most critical contribution I can make to my students' success is to foster creative thinking, as well as the ability and the self-confidence to see their ideas to fruition as they prepare their dissertations and, ultimately, their articles and books."
	David Ferry, Regents' Professor of Electrical Engineering (2000): "We watch how the students change and mature and go out to be quite independent people. There is a phase transition where students go from having lots of questions to having lots of answers. The thing that you have to do is avoid doing the work for the students. They have to be independent people. Mentors have to nurture them to do independent thinking and to be able to do the work on their own so that they reach their goals and achieve success."
	Robert E. Blankenship, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry (1998): "The student-professor mentoring experience is a process that often starts before the student arrives at the university and in many cases continues for years after graduation. The goal is to transform students into independent researchers, giving them not just the factual knowledge of their discipline, but more importantly, the skills and resources they need to approach and solve a variety of problems."
	William L. Graf, Regents' Professor of Geography (1998): "For me as the mentor in a comprehensive teaching and research institution, the generation of new knowledge is the ultimate goal. Part of that goal is wrapped up in teaching, the imparting of existing knowledge to students, for whom it is new. But part of the goal is also creative, original work. The graduate student is my logical partner in this grand enterprise, sharing the excitement of exploration and creation."
	Stephen G. West, Professor of Psychology (1997): "During my career, I have sought to foster the training of graduate students to work in a variety of interdisciplinary contexts....To be successful in interdisciplinary work, one must continue to learn new approaches. I encourage my students to study and read widely both in psychology and in other areas related to their topic area throughout their graduate careers."
	Constantine A. Balanis, Regents' Professor of Electrical Engineering (1996): "The idea of mentoring dates back to the ancient Greeks, coming from Greek mythology. Mentor was a friend of Odysseus who was entrusted with the education of Telemachus, Odysseus' son, when Odysseus left to fight the Trojans. Therefore, a mentor is a wise and trusted advisor-a tutor, coach, counselor, and a faithful friend.
	Robert D. Strom, Professor of Educational Psychology (1996): "I want students to realize that having an optimistic outlook can also help them cope with adversity. Optimism and pessimism can be thought of as explanatory styles each of us learn and rely on to interpret troublesome situations. Whereas a pessimist may view failure as permanent, overwhelming, and a sign of weakness, an optimist can perceive the same conditions as a temporary setback, an obstacle that can be overcome by trying again."
	John Holloway, Professor of Chemistry and Geology (1995): "Encouraging creativity is the most important part of mentoring; all the rest is just making sure that a student will have the necessary tools to implement their creative ideas."
	Manuel Barrera Jr., Professor of Psychology (1994): "My work with minority students and with a heterogeneous group of majority students is consistent with the value I place on diversity....The challenge of understanding the individuality of graduate students, contributing to their personal agendas, and witnessing the emergence of new competencies are the rewards of graduate teaching. I am truly grateful to the graduate students I have worked with over the years for the opportunity to experience these rewards."
	Helen L. Reed, Professor of Engineering (1994): "In mentoring Ph.D. students in engineering, we as professors are preparing them to be our colleagues in academia, industry, or government. Because they represent tomorrow's leaders and decision-makers in the scientific and engineering community, we must instill in them a desire to seek excellence in their pursuits, to take risks and tackle new and challenging problems, to think independently and critically, to convey information to others, to work successfully with others, and most importantly to never stop learning."
	Stuart Lindsay, Professor of Physics (1993): "The most pleasurable, and important, part of the mentoring process, however, comes when the student is on the verge of discovery. It is impossible to avoid the excitement. No matter the pile of papers on your desk or that you're late for a faculty meeting, you have to be in the lab or at the computer screen. I love to share the excitement as the new experiment or calculation is explained."
	Geoffrey A. Clark, Professor of Anthropology (1992): "In common with most of my colleagues, I consider that my involvement with a student does not end upon receipt of the Ph.D. Placing a talented, qualified individual in a position suited to his or her abilities is, after all, the raison d'être for a graduate program. In my opinion, graduate students must have a reasonable expectation of employment after completing the Ph.D. To insure that they are as competitive as they can be, I encourage and assist them to participate as fully as possible in the professional activities of the field during their graduate years."
	Peter Buseck, Regents' Professor of Geology and Chemistry (1990): "Mentoring is a multifaceted form of teaching that includes providing intensive attention to a graduate student, setting high performance standards, and creating a stimulating environment in which to do research. A major challenge for mentors is to facilitate the transition from a hierarchical faculty-student relationship to one of professional colleague and peer."
	W.L. Minckley, Professor of Zoology (1990): "Mentorship is a two-way street, depending heavily on the ambition and enthusiasm of the student as well as that of the mentor. The attributes and aspirations that bring credit to a student and his or her mentor are excellence in critical thinking, research that solves problems in addition to making significant contributions to general knowledge, verbal and written communication that maximizes the flow of information, and, ultimately, the passing on of their personal experience and expertise to others."
	David Foster, Professor of Spanish (1989): "It was this need to provide students with extraordinary professional skills that led me to build into my own interaction with students, and then into the (Spanish) program, several features that have now become the standard in such training at ASU and in the nation."
	Marvin Fisher, Professor of English (1987): "I take my role with graduate students seriously, and I have taken great pride in it and pleasure from it even when it carried no great esteem. In a sense I have taken my cue from Walt Whitman, who wrote ‘he most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.' What he had in mind was certainly not a death wish but a determination to make his students as independent, individualistic, and self-confident as possible."
	Ronald Greeley, Professor of Geology (1987): "The goal is to identify students who show potential for research in geology, encourage their attendance at ASU, and nurture their development as scientists. In addition to learning research methods, ethics, and philosophy, students are introduced to the practical side of research, including writing and reviewing proposals and papers, helping in various committee tasks, and in developing professional contacts."
	Nancy Kerr, Professor of Education (1987): "We attempt to ensure that students have the opportunity, and the encouragement, to participate in every professional activity that we are engaged in....If we are reviewing manuscripts for a journal, evaluating research proposals for a funding organization, editing a journal, conducting workshops, writing for publication, presenting papers at conventions, or participating in the work of a professional organization, students invariably work alongside us."

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