{"id":9606,"date":"2023-06-01T09:04:53","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T14:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=9606"},"modified":"2023-06-01T09:04:53","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T14:04:53","slug":"uw-eau-claire-honors-faculty-for-outstanding-work-mentoring-undergraduate-students-in-research","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-eau-claire-honors-faculty-for-outstanding-work-mentoring-undergraduate-students-in-research\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-Eau Claire honors faculty for outstanding work mentoring undergraduate students in research"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Three UW-Eau Claire faculty members will be honored in May for their work mentoring undergraduate students in research. The awards recognize the excellent work being done by research mentors across campus, work that is critical to the success of the university\u2019s nationally recognized undergraduate research and creative activity program.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire\u2019s\u00a0Office of Research and Sponsored Programs<\/a>\u00a0will honor three faculty members this spring for their work mentoring undergraduate students in research.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to honor the excellent work being done by research mentors because they\u2019re key to the success of the university\u2019s nationally recognized undergraduate research and creative activity program, says\u00a0Dr. Erica Benson<\/a>, interim director of ORSP.<\/p>\n

\u201cMentors not only model the methods and practices of the discipline but also foster students\u2019 intellectual and professional development and build relationships with students that often last long after the collaborative research\/creative activity experience has come to an end,\u201d Benson says.<\/p>\n

Faculty research mentors receiving awards are\u00a0Dr. Allison Beemer<\/a>, assistant professor of\u00a0mathematics<\/a>;\u00a0Dr. Jeanette Olsen<\/a>, associate professor of\u00a0nursing<\/a>; and\u00a0Dr. Sanchita Hati<\/a>, professor of\u00a0chemistry and biochemistry<\/a>. They will receive their awards during an ORSP ceremony at 4:30 p.m. May 4 in the Ojibwe Ballroom of Davies Center.<\/p>\n

These award winners are among the many outstanding UW-Eau Claire faculty who serve as research mentors to hundreds of Blugolds each year across campus, Benson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mentors are accomplished researchers, scholars and artists, expert teachers and conscientious role models, who support students in building expertise, solving problems, asking questions, acquiring professional ethics and beyond,\u201d Benson says.<\/p>\n

Beemer will receive the Emerging Mentor in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Award, given to a mentor who\u2019s been at UW-Eau Claire for five or fewer years. Students and alumni nominate faculty for this honor, which includes a $500 award.<\/p>\n

Introducing students to mathematical research and supporting them as they explore and disseminate their work is one of the most enjoyable parts of her job as a math professor and is \u201cessential for advancing equity in the field,\u201d Beemer says.<\/p>\n

She invites students to \u201ctake ownership of a small slice of mathematics to cultivate a sense of belonging within the field,\u201d says Beemer, who has mentored seven student researchers.<\/p>\n

A student who nominated Beemer for the award describes her as an incredible professor and mentor who \u201callows me to say what I\u2019m thinking without fear of being wrong.\u201d The student says Beemer leads her \u201cin the right direction when I have questions, but also allows me to independently think through the work we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her recommendation letter,\u00a0Dr. Carolyn Otto<\/a>, professor of mathematics, says Beemer is \u201cpositively the most dedicated, motivated and promising early career faculty member that I\u2019ve encountered.\u201d When recruiting students, Beemer considers different characteristics, from experience to mathematical ability to demographical diversity, always looking for students who are \u201cinquisitive and enthusiastic with the content and who have the potential to diversify the perspectives of the research team,\u201d Otto says.<\/p>\n

Olsen will receive the Excellence in Mentoring in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Award. The $1,500 award is given to a faculty member who has been at UW-Eau Claire for five or more years.<\/p>\n

Olsen says students start projects at different levels of research knowledge and skill, but she expects them all to be willing to \u201crisk moving beyond one\u2019s comfort zone and give one\u2019s best effort to support personal growth and project quality,\u201d Olsen says. She strives to create a space \u201cwhere it\u2019s safe to take these risks, making it clear that effort, rather than perfection, is the goal and that seeking feedback and making revisions is the norm for all team members, including faculty,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

A student nominator says working with Olsen has inspired her to pursue research throughout her nursing career. With Olsen\u2019s encouragement and support, the student says her research will be published in two journals by the time she graduates, an accomplishment not possible without Olsen\u2019s \u201cleadership, organization and wonderful mentoring skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Shelley-Rae Pehler, professor emerita of nursing, says Olsen guides students through the research process, \u201csetting them up for success.\u201d By working with Olsen, students \u201csee the full research trajectory as well as the professional relationships that are crucial to a successful research project,\u201d Pehler says.<\/p>\n

Hati will receive the Career Excellence in Mentoring, in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Award, a newly established $1,500 award that recognizes faculty with more than 15 years at UW-Eau Claire. Recipients are nominated by colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cUndergraduate student research mentoring is essential to my job as an educator, which brings me both fulfillment and joy,\u201d says Hati, who has made mentoring student researchers a priority since she began teaching on campus in 2006.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough conducting research, I can instruct students in a more flexible format, personalizing the experience to the learning needs of each student,\u201d Hati says. \u201cI use undergraduate research to teach biochemistry and biophysical chemistry, to prepare students for graduate school and industry, and to help students see themselves as scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through her role as a mentor, Hati aims to \u201cinstill curiosity and inspire creative thinking, while nurturing independence and fostering a love for learning.\u201d Since it\u2019s well-documented that undergraduate research has many benefits, she tries to provide this \u201chigh-impact learning opportunity\u201d to as many students as possible, either in traditional lab settings or through course-embedded authentic research.<\/p>\n

Hati says she also emphasizes the importance of sharing research because \u201cwithout communicating research findings to others, the learning seems incomplete.\u201d Her research with undergraduate students has led to many peer-reviewed publications and research presentations, including 20 published peer-reviewed journal articles with undergraduates as co-authors. To date, she has mentored 60 undergraduate student researchers.<\/p>\n

In a letter of recommendation,\u00a0Dr. Stephen Drucker<\/a>, a professor in the chemistry and biochemistry department, says Hati\u2019s research is at the forefront of her field and is supported by significant federal funding. He says her students\u2019 research experiences are \u201cauthentic and substantial,\u201d and that Hati has \u201ctrained them for productive scientific careers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Written by Judy Berthiaume<\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/www.uwec.edu\/news\/news\/uw-eau-claire-honors-faculty-for-outstanding-work-mentoring-undergraduate-students-in-research-5703\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire\u2019s\u00a0Office of Research and Sponsored Programs\u00a0will honor three faculty members this spring for their work mentoring undergraduate students in research. It\u2019s important to honor the excellent work being done by research mentors because they\u2019re key to the success of the university\u2019s nationally recognized undergraduate research and creative activity program, says\u00a0Dr. Erica […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":9608,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[96],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-9606","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-eau-claire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/9606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=9606"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=9606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}