Graduate Mentorship Award

Criteria

Following the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) national 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 a 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.

Eligibility

Nominations of Members of the School of Graduate Studies from all disciplines are encouraged. “Mentorship” is broadly defined to include supervision and mentorship of artistic and written works (such as projects, theses, dissertations, and creative activities) at the graduate level. To be eligible for this award, the nominee must:

• Hold a full-time faculty appointment at the rank of Associate or full Professor at the University of Lethbridge;
• Demonstrate a sustained record of graduate supervision at the University of Lethbridge over a period of at least 7 years;
• Hold membership in the School of Graduate Studies and have supervised one or more graduate students within the past year;
• Have not previously been awarded this distinction.

Nomination Information

Nominations may be submitted by a current or former UofL graduate student or faculty colleague. The nomination package must be submitted as a single electronic PDF file to the School of Graduate Studies at sgs@uleth.ca. Unsuccessful nominees will be allowed to carry forward their nomination package for two additional years provided they remain eligible.

A nomination package should include:

• A letter of nomination outlining the rationale for the nomination based on the above criteria (maximum two pages). Generic statements such as “has an open-door policy” or “has group meals or outings” do not usefully distinguish one mentorship nominee from the next. The best nominations will give specific examples of ways in which the nominee fulfills the criteria for the award.
• The nominee’s abbreviated CV (maximum of eight pages), as well as a list of all graduate students (past and current) supervised by the nominee. The list of supervised students should include students’ respective names, degrees, thesis titles, program start and end dates, current positions (if known), as well as any awards, scholarships or special recognitions received by the students.
• Two to five letters of support from current and/or former University of Lethbridge students. Each letter may be signed by more than one current or former student.
• A brief philosophy of supervision statement provided by the nominee (500 words maximum). 
• A biographical statement of the nominee (max. 100 words).

Nominees will be encouraged to update their CVs when a nomination is carried over to a subsequent year, and will be permitted to update their philosophy of supervision and biographical statements.

Note: Excerpts from the nomination letter, letters of support, philosophy of supervision statement and biographical statement may be used in communications celebrating the award.

Selection Process

The annual recipient of the award will be recommended by the SGS Program Chairs Committee for approval by Graduate Council Executive. The annual deadline for nominations shall be March 31^st, or the subsequent Monday if the 31^st falls during a weekend.

Under normal circumstances, the awardee will be nominated for the Dr. Suning Wang Award for Outstanding Graduate Mentorship in the subsequent nomination window (typically April 15 to May 31 of the year of the award).

Awardees will be asked to respect any embargos with respect to announcement of the award.