Distinguished Graduate Mentoring Award
The Distinguished Graduate Mentoring Award honors GVSU tenured/tenure-track faculty members who have direct and significant impact and involvement with graduate students, outstanding commitment and effectiveness as a mentor of graduate students, been innovative in mentoring, and have demonstrated unusual effort to provide consistent mentoring of graduate students during the course of their careers at GVSU.
2025 Recipient
Samhita Rhodes, Ph.D.
Professor of Engineering
Joined Grand Valley State University in 2007
Samhita Rhodes is a dedicated and passionate graduate student mentor. Dr. Rhodes has mentored twenty-eight graduate students, helping them achieve success at GVSU and beyond. Samhita has a long record of publishing with graduate students in prestigious journals and frequently presenting with them at national conferences. As the Graduate Program Director for the School of Engineering, Dr. Rhodes has also advocated for graduate students at the service level, working to increase graduate student stipends and serving on over two dozen master’s committees. Samhita promotes the development of curiosity in her students, with a focus on recognizing self-worth and fostering resilience.
About the Award
AWARD INFORMATION
The Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence’s Distinguished Graduate Mentoring Award was established to recognize and encourage outstanding mentoring of graduate students by GVSU tenured/tenure-track faculty members. Recipients will have direct and significant impact and involvement with graduate students, outstanding commitment and effectiveness as a mentor of graduate students, been innovative in mentoring, and have demonstrated unusual effort to provide consistent mentoring of graduate students during the course of their careers at GVSU. In addition to the honor of being designated a CSCE Distinguished Faculty Mentor, recipients are awarded $500. Nominations for the Award are solicited from deans, department chairs, faculty colleagues, alumni, and current research students.
The criteria used in nominations and evaluations of nominees are: extraordinary commitment and effectiveness as a mentor of graduate students including activities such as serving as major professor, minor professor, Graduate Council Representative, committee member, and so forth; demonstrated record of graduate student success in graduate school and in their professional career (e.g. scholarships/fellowships, awards, placement, career achievements, scholarly works); and demonstrated commitment to creating an environment supportive of graduate student success.
ELIGIBILITY
All tenured and tenure-track faculty members who have been employed at GVSU a minimum of 3 years.
How to Nominate
NOMINATE
Each college may nominate a faculty member for this University-wide award. The recipients will be recognized as a distinguished mentor. The Faculty Award Committee for each college will select one faculty member (except CLAS, which selects up to seven, and Seidman College of Business, which selects up to two) to be considered for the award. Faculty Award Committee members are selected by the Dean. Faculty Award Committee membership will be a minimum of three faculty. Nominations for the award may come from college dean, department chair, and faculty colleagues. Self-nominations are not accepted.
NOMINATION PACKET MATERIALS
Packets with missing items will not be reviewed. Nomination packets must include:
- Completed Declaration Page
- Statement of mentoring philosophy from nominee in regards to graduate research.
- Three letters of support from colleagues who have knowledge of the nominee’s ability as a teacher/scholar. One letter of support shall be from the department chair of the nominee’s unit, one shall be from a current graduate student, and the third may be from a graduate student, a faculty colleague, advanced degree alumnus, or other individual who can comment on the nominee’s qualifications.
- Listing of mentored graduate students – name, project, publications (designating as peer or non-peer reviewed) and current position of student.
- A current Curriculum Vitae.
**Please note: ONLY the above stated documents, combined into a single PDF, will be accepted as a completed nomination packet. No additional documents will be accepted.
DEADLINE
Yearly on November 1st. The nominee’s unit is responsible for obtaining pertinent data and providing the required information. Please check with your Dean for any deadline requiring you to submit to the Dean's office for review and signatures prior to being sent to CSCE by November 1st.
REVIEW PROCESS
The Faculty Research and Development Committee, with representation from the Graduate Council, will review all candidates, and CSCE will forward the names of recipients to the Provost and recipients' Dean by December 15th. The Dean's office will inform the receipient of the award. CSCE will inform nominees who are not selected. Only one award will be made each year. The recipient will receive $500. An individual faculty member may not receive the award more than once.