To recognize and encourage the efforts of graduate students who serve as effective mentors, the Graduate Division of UC Santa Barbara presents two annual awards for students who have distinguished themselves in the area of undergraduate research supervision.

Fiona and Michael Goodchild Graduate Mentoring Award

&

Carol Genetti Graduate Mentoring Award

The purpose of these awards is threefold:

  • To recognize graduate students who have distinguished themselves as mentors of undergraduates
  • To acknowledge campus initiatives to improve the educational experience of undergraduates and graduate students by integrating research into undergraduate education at UCSB
  • To encourage others to become involved in these research efforts

These awards are important examples of the Graduate Division’s ongoing efforts to promote a culture of mentoring.

The 2024 nomination cycle is now closed

 

Nominations for the next cycle will open Spring 2025. 
 

Click each section below to find out more:

Four recipients of the Fiona and Michael Goodchild Graduate Mentoring Award and four recipients of the Carol Genetti Graduate Mentoring Award will receive $1000 each (eight awards in all). Selections are made by a subcommittee formed by the Academic Senate Graduate Council.

The Fiona and Michael Goodchild Graduate Mentoring Award is available to students in the College of Engineering; Mathematical, Life, and Physical Sciences Division of the College of Letters and Science; and the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. The Carol Genetti Graduate Mentoring Award is available to students in the Humanities and Fine Arts and Social Sciences Divisions of the College of Letters and Science and the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education. Both awards are open to currently enrolled graduate students in good academic standing who mentor at least one undergraduate. Nominees must be registered during the award period (spring quarter) of the year they are nominated.

NOTE: Previous award recipients are not eligible to receive the award in subsequent years.

The Graduate Division invites up to two (2) nominations from each academic department to be considered for the mentoring award. Departments should internally coordinate their selections, and nominations must be submitted by the department chair or faculty graduate program advisor. For programs and institutes not housed in academic departments but who wish to nominate a student, please coordinate recommendations through the student's home department.

Graduate students are evaluated on the overall impact of their mentoring efforts rather than the total number of students they have supervised. Because of the diverse nature of mentoring in different disciplines, slightly different criteria are used to evaluate candidates for each award.

Each nomination packet must include:

  1. A nomination letter from a faculty mentor, program director, or program coordinator (maximum length: two pages)
  2. A nomination letter from an undergraduate mentee of the nominee (maximum length: two pages); this letter should describe a research project or course in which the nominee and the undergraduate mentee were involved
  3. A statement from the graduate student nominee (maximum length: two pages) discussing the relevance of the mentoring experience on their own education and future career plans

These documents should be compiled and uploaded as a single PDF.

  • Has the graduate student demonstrated effectiveness in supervising an undergraduate researcher?
  • How much time and interest has the graduate student invested in introducing undergraduate students to experimental and investigative research?
  • How has the graduate student developed supervisory strategies that are effective in motivating students to achieve success in undergraduate research?
  • What is the subsequent record of undergraduate students who have worked under the supervision of this graduate student?
  • Overall, what distinguishes this graduate student as a departmental or program nominee for one of these awards?
  • Has the graduate student demonstrated effectiveness in mentoring an undergraduate student or group of students?
  • How much time and interest has the graduate student invested in introducing undergraduate students to scholarly activities at a research university?
  • How has the graduate student developed mentoring strategies that are effective in motivating students to achieve success in scholarly activities at a research university?
  • What are the subsequent achievements of undergraduate students who have worked under the mentorship of this graduate student?
  • Overall, what distinguishes this graduate student as a departmental or program nominee for one of these awards?

For questions, please contact Anna Theogarajan, Assistant Director of Professional Development for the Graduate Division.

Learn more about our recipients from previous years

Click their name to read about their research interests, mentoring experiences, and the meaning of the award to them

Mentoring Award Block

Carol Genetti Graduate Mentoring Award

2023

Jessica Zisa | English
Natalie Larez | Counseling, Clinical & School Psychology
Alejandra Valencia Medina | Chicanx Studies
Sepideh Alavi | Counseling, Clinical & School Psychology

2022

Yessica Green Rosas | Counseling, Clinical, & School Psychology
Nitzan Navick | Communication
Olga Faccani | Classics

2021

Elizabeth Agey | Anthropology
Corinna Klein | Counseling, Clinical, & School Psychology
Valerie Meier | Education

2020

Jacob Fisher | Communication
Raymok Ketema | History
Kelly Whaling | Counseling, Clinical, & School Psychology

2019

Monica Cornejo | Communication
Avi McClelland-Cohen | Communication
Mallory Melton | Anthropology

2018

Jeremy Chow | English
Toni Gonzalez | Anthropology
Jacob Kirksey | Education

2017

Aubrie Adams | Communication
Baron Haber | English

2016

Holly Roose | History
Benjamin Smith | Communication
Vanessa Witenko | Education
Mentoring Award Block

Fiona and Michael Goodchild Award

2023

Sharon Levy | Computer Science
Laura Pritschet | Psychological & Brain Sciences
S. Shailja | Electrical & Computer Engineering
Zoë Zilz | Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology

2022

Nicholas Naclerio | Mechanical Engineering
Ray Adkins | Physics
Alyssa Lawson | Psychological & Brain Sciences
Yi Ding | Computer Science

2021

Chelsea Edwards | Chemical Engineering
Elliott Ihm | Psychological & Brain Sciences
Ryan Lach | Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology

2020

Chelsea Brown | Psychological & Brain Sciences
Deeksha Dangwal | Computer Science
Lauren Ortosky | Psychological & Brain Sciences

2019

Thomas (Alex) Johnson | Earth Science
Eric Jones | Physics
Nick Sherck | Chemical Engineering

2018

Emre Discekici | Chemistry
Michelle Lee | Ecology, Evolution, & Marine Biology
Payton Small | Psychological & Brain Sciences

2017

Phil Ehret | Psychological & Brain Sciences
May ElSherif | Computer Science
Devyn Orr | Ecology, Evolution, & Marine Biology

2016

Jeffrey Bowen | Psychological & Brain Sciences
Kaziya Lee | Psychological & Brain Sciences
Kelly Thomasson | Ecology, Evolution, & Marine Biology

2015

Stacy Copp | Physics
William Ryan | Psychological & Brain Sciences

2014

Holly Roose | History
Marisa Weaver | Chemistry and Biochemistry

2013

Ashley Wright | Chemistry and Biochemistry
Katlyn Roggensack | Communication

2012

Lisa McAllister | Anthropology
Melissa Bator | Communication

2011

J. Stephen Gosnell | Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Richard A. Lewis | Chemistry and Biochemistry

2010

Loren Merrill | Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Chris von Rueden | Anthropology

2009

Jung-Eun Janie Lee | Linguistics
Andrew T. Stull | Psychology

2008

Aubrey Cano | Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Claudia Kouyoumdjian | Gevirtz Graduate School of Education

2007

Mara Henderson | Linguistics
Scott Hamilton | Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology

2006

Sarah Lester | Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Juliet Simpson | Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology

2005

Sherry T. Hikita | Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Pankaj S. Karande | Chemical Engineering

2004

Tom Jaramillo | Chemical Engineering
Laura Mydlarz | Marine Science

2003

Claudia Moya | Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Kevin Wingerd | Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology