USC Mentoring Awards

PURPOSE

The USC Mentoring Awards honor faculty who contribute to an engaging and supportive academic environment through their mentorship of students and faculty. Distinguished mentoring for academic and professional success occurs through formal and informal channels and may vary in style and substance from discipline to discipline. A review committee of previous USC Mentoring Award winners will evaluate nomination packets based on evidence for most or all of the following criteria with undergraduate students, graduate students, or faculty.

AWARD CATEGORIES

  • Faculty Mentoring Faculty, Postdoctoral Scholars, Medical Residents, and Fellows
  • Faculty Mentoring Graduate Students
  • Faculty Mentoring Undergraduate Students

CRITERIA FOR AWARDS

  1. Goal Setting: Exploring mentees’ talents and interests to assist them in defining and attaining their goals.
  2. Support: Encouraging growth and achievement by providing a supportive environment where challenges, successes, and failures can be openly shared and examined.
  3. Information and Advice: Carving out regular time to share knowledge, experiences, and wisdom to guide mentees in reaching their academic, professional, and/or personal goals.
  4. Feedback: Making themselves available to provide regular and constructive feedback on mentees’ work, when requested.
  5. Professional Exposure: Involving mentees in publications, grants, presentations, expositions, or professional/leadership opportunities, and readily sharing knowledge of other such opportunities with mentees.
  6. Networking: Providing valuable access and opportunities by facilitating academic, professional, and personal contacts.
  7. Role Modeling: Maintaining high standards for excellence within their own discipline and as an engaged member of the University community. Engaging in respectful relationships with colleagues, junior colleagues, and students. Acknowledging power differentials in professional relationships and behaving with integrity, in line with USC’s Code of Ethics. Encouraging mentees to adopt similar principles of professional behavior.

ELIGIBILITY FOR NOMINATIONS

All faculty members—part-time and full-time—currently employed by USC are eligible for nomination. Faculty may receive the award only once per category, though previous winners are eligible for nomination in any category in which they have not yet won.

NOMINATION PROCEDURES

Submit a complete nomination form and upload 3 letters (1 nomination letter + 2 support letters) at the link for the USC Mentoring Award Nomination Form

Letters can be solicited from past or present mentees of the nominee, the nominee’s department chair, the nominee’s dean, or other appropriate individuals. Letters should directly address criteria for the award, and have a maximum limit of 2 pages per letter. Letters of support with multiple signatures will be counted as one letter.

TIMETABLE

Nominations submitted by January 30, 2026, 5:00PM (PST)

Selections to be announced by April 2026

Awards Ceremony: May 2026

The nomination deadline is January 30, 2026. Nominations and supplementary materials cannot be accepted after the deadline. Nominations are for a single year’s cycle only.

If you have any questions, please contact facultydevelopment@usc.edu.

Last updated December 2025