Academics

Sarah Adams honored with Graduate Student Excellence in Mentoring Award

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State doctoral student Sarah Adams was awarded the Graduate Student Excellence in Mentoring Award during the annual Graduate Student Awards Luncheon held on April 18 at the Nittany Lion Inn.

The Graduate Student Excellence in Mentoring Award recognizes senior doctoral students for exemplary and effective mentoring of undergraduate and/or new or junior graduate students that contributes to the student’s personal growth, professional development and/or academic success.

A doctoral student in English, Adams is a leader of mentoring programs for new teaching assistants and new graduate assistants in the English department.

She developed a new mentoring method that entails using a video recording of the class session selected for the standard teaching observation. With the video accessible to the teaching assistant, the evaluation process is significantly more collaborative.

As coordinator for the English department’s graduate mentoring program, Adams oversees smaller mentoring groups composed of two faculty members, two advanced graduate students and two new graduate students.

One graduate student mentored by Adams wrote, “Sarah is not merely a mentor in the academic sense  ─  the kind that drops bits of knowledge or advice from a comfortable, safe distance ─ she is the kind of mentor who invests herself in the lives of her mentees, sharing their joys and frustrations and fears alongside them.”

Last Updated April 26, 2017