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Crystal Park Receives Marth Mentorship Award

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It is our pleasure to announce the recipient of this year’s Edward C. Marth Mentorship Award. This award recognizes a faculty member for outstanding leadership and dedication to excellence in mentoring graduate students. It was established by the UConn AAUP to honor Edward Marth, former Executive Director of the UConn AAUP Chapter.

Crystal Park from the Clinical Psychology program in the Department of Psychological Sciences.
Crystal Park from the Clinical Psychology program in the Department of Psychological Sciences.

This year’s recipient of the Marth Award is Professor Crystal Park from the Clinical Psychology program in the Department of Psychological Sciences. Professor Park has been an outstanding mentor and contributor to graduate education at UConn. To date, she Park has mentored 12 Ph.D. students and currently has six additional students in her lab (in addition to a number of undergraduates). It is clear from testimonials that Professor Park has had a profound impact on the lives of many of her students. From the minute they arrive on campus (and sometimes before), she builds a close working and personal relationship with them that in many cases extends well beyond graduation. She encourages her students to collaborate with other scientists at UConn and in the broader research community and helps them build their networks and develop relationships with other researchers. She encourages students to identify “big questions” of interest to them and to keep those questions in mind as they develop their research ideas. She clearly makes an enormous investment in her students and works hard to facilitate their success in graduate school and in their careers.

Professor Park is also a prolific researcher. She has published over 300 articles and book chapters, many of them co-authored with current or former graduate students. She is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the American Psychological Association (Divisions 36 and 38), and is currently Editor-in-Chief of the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.

In honor of her contributions, Professor Park will be giving an address that will be included in The Graduate School online commencement ceremonies.

Past recipients of the Marth Award include Preston Britner (2020), Sandra Chafouleas (2019), Maria-Luz Fernandez (2018), Elizabeth Jockusch (2015-2016), Shareen Hertel (2014-2015), John Mathieu (2013-2014), JC Beall (2012-2013) and Dipak Dey (2011-2012).

Postdoc Appreciation Week Highlights

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Monday, September 21st to Friday, September 25th marked the Postdoc Appreciation Week at UConn in partnership with The Graduate School, UConn Health, and The Center for Career Development. Even though all events happened virtually, we hope our Postdocs know that you aren’t only important to us this week, but year-round. To recapitulate, here are some highlights from this past Postdoc Appreciation Week:

Thank you to all who attended Postdoc Appreciation Week
Thank you to all who attended Postdoc Appreciation Week

On Tuesday, September 22nd, The Graduate School hosted a panel discussion, Next Steps on the Academic Ladder: Reflections from Former Postdocs, regarding the challenges and opportunities of Postdocs moving forward. We had a diverse panel that included former UConn Postdocs who are now at new faculty positions across the US or who stayed at UConn, and Postdocs who competed their Postdoc at other universities who are now faculty at UConn as we were also excited to see some familiar faces at the event. The panelists shared tips and tricks for navigating the job market, what challenges they had encountered, and how their takes on balancing work with job search looked like. The panelists also shared their advices for current Postdocs looking to secure a faculty position: it is important to be intentional about institution and position while navigating the job search, as process and opportunities would look different and depend on the field. Panelists had different opinions regarding when to apply to jobs, some agreed to apply as fast as possible while others suggesting being more intentional of what’s the right fit. It is important to check in with your advisor or mentor to get their opinions and support as the job search process can vary within the field and institution.

On Wednesday, September 23rd, Dean Holsinger from The Graduate School hosted AMA (Ask Me Anything) session where Postdocs had the chance to ask Dean Holsinger about anything they wanted, whether it’s about postdoc life at UConn, life after a postdoc, or fountain pens. During the event, Dean Holsinger answered questions on being a Postdoc at UConn and looked for ways The Graduate School can better serve the Postdoc community. Many Postdocs asked questions focused on work-life balance, while Dean Holsinger shared that when it comes to career and finding a position, Postdocs should keep their eyes open on a broad range of careers. Their PhD work can be applied to many different areas and a faculty position doesn’t have to be the fallback. When asked about working on research versus finding funding for research projects, Dean Holsinger shared that it is difficult to answer as this might vary by individual cases. It is tough to find a balance between the two, yet prioritization is always an important skill that has to be developed over time.

A final thank you to all the postdocs for everything you do! We will continue to support you during your journey here at UConn!

Marth Award 2018: Maria Luz Fernandez

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Colleagues, students, family, and friends gathered recently at a reception to celebrate with Professor Maria Luz Fernandez, this year’s recipient of the Edward C. Marth Mentorship Award.  This award, established by the UConn AAUP to honor Ed Marth, former Executive Director of the UConn AAUP chapter, recognizes a faculty member for outstanding leadership and dedication to excellence in mentoring graduate students. As a professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Dr. Fernandez has epitomized all of the qualities celebrated by this award.  Not only is she a world-renowned scholar, but she is also a tireless advocate for graduate students and graduate education more generally.  She has supervised over 50 graduate students (PhD and MS), regularly publishing with student co-authors, and has played a prominent role in the recruitment and retention of minority graduate students at UConn. Dean Kent Holsinger from The Graduate School presided over the ceremony conferring this award to Dr. Fernandez and led the toast honoring her many contributions.2018 Marth Award Winner

Faculty Recognition: The Edward C. Marth Mentorship Award

The UConn AAUP established the Edward C. Marth Mentorship Award to recognize the leadership and dedication of Edward Marth, former Executive Director of the UConn AAUP Chapter, and to encourage and reward outstanding mentoring of graduate students by UConn Graduate Faculty members. Recipients will have had direct and significant impact and involvement with graduate students, outstanding commitment and effectiveness as a mentor of graduate students, and have demonstrated unusual effort to provide consistent mentoring of graduate students during the course of their careers at UConn. Recipients of the Edward C. Marth Mentorship Award are UConn Graduate Faculty members who have extraordinary records of excellence and effectiveness in activities such as facilitating smooth transitions for both entering and exiting graduate students; showing sensitivity to students’ academic, personal, and professional goals and needs; being accessible to students; playing an active role in coaching graduate students through the graduate school experience and connecting them to appropriate intellectual and professional networks; and, guiding graduate students toward intellectual and professional independence.

The Dean of The Graduate School distributes a request for nominations early in the fall semester, and the award is typically announced in the final week of the semester.

Past Recipients:

Elizabeth Jockusch (2015-2016), Shareen Hertel (2014-2015), John Mathieu (2013-2014), JC Beall (2012-2013) and Dipak Dey (2011-2012).