Teaching and Mentoring Awards and the new Staff Service Award
The Heller School is pleased to announce the opening of the nomination period for the annual Heller Teaching, Mentoring, and the Staff Service Awards. Nominations for either the Teaching Award or the Mentoring Award may be made by current students or recent graduates of any of the six degree-granting programs. Nominations for the Staff Service Award may be made by all members of the Heller community, students, faculty, and staff. Beyond identifying and rewarding individual excellence in teaching,mentoring, and staff service, this award process provides a way to advance a Heller-wide commitment to rigor and creativity in teaching,learning, and supporting a community of learning.
Nominate for Staff Service Award
A selection committee composed of faculty, students, staff and alumni will review nominations. The committee will primarily be guided by the content of the nominations and secondly by the number of nominations. In the case of nominees for the Teaching Award, the committee will also look at teaching evaluations. For the 2012-2013 academic year, the committee is as follows:
Teaching Award Past Winners (past two years):
- Barry Friedman
- Susan Parish
Mentoring Award Past Winners (past two years):
- Deborah Garnick
- Susan Holcombe
Staff Service Award (last year's winner, the first):
- Martha Davis
Representatives of Heller's 6 degree-granting programs and alumni:
- Yasmin Abbas, PhD
- Kimberley Boucher, MBA
- Sheriff Drammeh, MA/COEX
- Jason Gray, MPP '11
- Teresa Martins, MS
- Jamie Minton, MPP
- María Camila Villegas, MA/SID
Other Members:
- Meaghan Cummings, Staff Member
- Leslie Godoff, Staff Representative
- Nina Kammerer, Chair
- Walter Leutz, Ex-Officio
Current committee members are ineligible to win.
The awards will be announced at Heller on April 11th at noon in the Zinner Forum and later that day at the Brandeis University Faculty Meeting.
The deadline for nominations is March 9, 2013.
Nominate for Staff Service Award
Criteria for Teaching Award
Excellent teachers can help students to be excited about learning, understand complex issues and events, or master a subject area. Your nomination for an excellence in teaching award should describe how the faculty member has been an outstanding teacher, incorporating criteria listed below. Please give specific examples and stories. Any Heller faculty or research/program staff member is eligible to receive the Award if he or she has taught any Heller graduate course in calendar year 2012.
Excellence in teaching manifests itself in many different modes, styles, and voices, but some criteria include the ability to
- Communicate subject matter accurately, clearly, and with enthusiasm.
- Present, invite, and test multiple and balanced points of view.
- Expand students’ ways of thinking by offering intellectual approaches that apply beyond the specific subject matter of the class.
- Challenge and inspire students to become engaged citizens of the world who aspire not only to achieve understanding, but also to advance the cause of social justice.
- Create communities of learners in which students can and do take intellectual risks and experiment creatively.
- Treat all students with respect and consideration, responding appropriately to the individual needs of each student.
- Stimulate students’ intellectual curiosity, fostering critical and creative thinking and problem solving.
- Inspire and support students to do their best work.
- Be sensitive to racism, ageism, sexism, and other diversity issues.
Criteria for Mentoring Award
The mentoring relationships students form at Heller can enhance their graduate education and lead to the achievement of professional and career development goals. Your nomination for an excellence in mentoring award should describe how the faculty or researcher who has mentored you academically during the calendar year 2012 has been outstanding in supporting and encouraging your research, education, professional, and personal development. Please give specific examples and stories. Some of the activities carried out by excellent mentors are
- Advising and guiding research and field work.
- Organizing an effective environment for research and scholarship.
- Developing talents such as research skills, management expertise, teaching ability, presentations, writing, and preparation of grant and fellowship applications.
- Challenging and inspiring students to become engaged citizens of the world who aspire not only to achieve understanding, but also to advance the cause of social justice.
- Sponsoring students in the academic/professional community.
- Advocacy and guidance in administrative, organizational, and professional matters.
- Serving as a successful role model.
- Showing concern for students as individuals and supporting their personal development.
- Demonstrating a long-term commitment to mentoring (including changing their roles as each student develops during graduate school).
- Sensitivity to racism, ageism, sexism, and other diversity issues.
Criteria for Staff Service Award
Non-academic staff (not teachers or researchers) organize an effective environment for learning, teaching, and research and foster excellence in these areas. Your nomination for an award for excellence in staff service should describe how the staff member has made an outstanding contribution to the community and its shared mission of using knowledge to advance social justice during the calendar year 2012. Please give specific examples and stories.
Excellence in staff service is demonstrated in many different ways, but some ways include:
- Promoting cooperative and effective organizational operations.
- Interacting with all community members as individuals and supporting their personal development.
- Guiding students in adjusting to and navigating the challenges of graduate school.
- Assisting community members in pursuing excellence in scholarship and research.
- Facilitating contributions to social policy.
- Fostering a sense of community with a shared mission within and across programs.
- Modeling excellence in communication skills.
- Demonstrating sensitivity to racism, ageism, sexism, and other diversity issues and to the diversity of life experiences of community members.
Nominate for Staff Service Award