Graduate Program Mentoring Excellence Award

The Graduate Program Mentoring Excellence Award recognizes graduate programs that make mentoring a core program responsibility by building a culture of high-quality, inclusive, and accountable mentoring. We seek to spotlight programs that use evidence-based, equitable, responsive, and sustainable mentoring practices, and that use measurable outcomes to support graduate students’ success and belonging, while preparing them for diverse career pathways.

This award builds on graduate programs’ Statements of Expectation for Graduate Student Mentoring, developed by all programs in 2022, in which all programs transparently express their commitment and approach to quality graduate mentoring. You may also find it helpful to draw on processes or measurement emanating from your Graduate Learning Outcomes Assessment plan.

This honor comes with a $1,000 award to the department to support mentoring activities.

Eligibility: Previous award recipients become eligible again five years after receiving the award. 

Deadline: Submit the nomination letter to Dr. Angela Bies, Associate Dean for Graduate Student Success by Monday, April 27, 2026 for consideration. 

AY 25-26 Guidelines and Instructions