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Award of Excellence in Graduate Student Supervision and Mentorship

This award recognizes a faculty member in the Faculty of Health Sciences who has demonstrated a record of mentorship that fosters intellectual, professional, and personal development of graduate students in the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Award Criteria

In line with the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies’ Dr. Suning Wang Award for Outstanding Graduate Mentorship Award Criteria, outstanding mentorship is judged on the supervisor’s demonstrated ability to:

• Inspire, guide and challenge students to achieve excellence and integrity in scholarship;
• Provide a supportive environment that stimulates creativity, debate, engagement and dialogue, and progression toward timely completion;
• Support students in ways that are tailored to their individual learning styles, needs, and career/future aspirations;
• Encourage students to pursue opportunities to share and disseminate their research and scholarly activities within and beyond academia; and
• Support students in developing their academic and professional competencies and transitioning beyond graduate studies.
• Model and encourage productive and sustainable life balance

Eligibility

To be eligible for this award the nominee must:

• Hold a full-time faculty appointment within the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS), or be a joint appointee to a program within the Faculty of Health Sciences;
• Demonstrate a sustained record of graduate supervision within FHS;
• Be supervising at least one graduate student within FHS at the time of nomination

Nomination and Process

• Nominations may come from faculty, staff, post-doctoral scholars, students, or alumni
• Self-nominations will not be accepted
• Nominees must agree to the nomination
• Nominees are responsible for the preparation of the dossier. Solicitation and collection of reference letters is, however, the responsibility of the nominator.

All documents within the nomination package must use Times New Roman 12 point font, and have 2.54cm margins. The nomination package may be no more than 20 pages in total, and must include:

1. A signed letter of nomination outlining the rationale for the nomination based on the award criteria (maximum of two pages). Note, letter writers are encouraged to emphasize aspects of the nominee’s supervision that are related to the listed criteria. For example, comments about supervisors with “an open-door policy” or supervisors that “have group meals or outings” tend not to usefully distinguish one mentorship nominee from the next.
2. The nominee’s abbreviated CV (maximum of eight pages), including a list of all graduate students (past and current) supervised by the nominee. The list should include the name, degree, thesis title, program start and end date, current position (if known) of supervised graduate students, as well as any awards or special recognitions received by students.
3. Two to five letters of support from current and/or former students. Letters can be signed by more than one student/former student.

SEND NOMINATIONS TO:

FHS Teaching Awards Committee Attn: Associate Dean (Undergraduate) Arthur and Sonia Labatt Health Sciences Building Room 200C

NOMINATION DEADLINE: March 15.

If the nomination deadline falls on a weekend, nominations will be accepted the next business day

Tips for Nominators:

• Start early as nominations letters may take time to arrive.
• When requesting letters from students, it is a good practice to ask the referee to provide specific examples of how or why the nominee is deserving of this recognition. For example:
  • “my supervisor stimulated me to think outside the box”;
  • “my supervisor made me a better scholar by facilitating careful design in my research projects”;
  • “my supervisor accommodated my personal medical needs”;
  • “my supervisor cultivated a healthy learning atmosphere that stimulates intellectual and personal growth”;
• Do not exceed the page limits within the dossier.