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.
- Goal Setting: Exploring mentees’ talents and interests to assist them in defining and attaining their goals.
- Support: Encouraging growth and achievement by providing a supportive environment where challenges, successes, and failures can be openly shared and examined.
- 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.
- Feedback: Making themselves available to provide regular and constructive feedback on mentees’ work, when requested.
- Professional Exposure: Involving mentees in publications, grants, presentations, expositions, or professional/leadership opportunities, and readily sharing knowledge of other such opportunities with mentees.
- Networking: Providing valuable access and opportunities by facilitating academic, professional, and personal contacts.
- 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.
All faculty members—part-time and full-time—currently employed by USC are eligible for nomination. A nominee may not win within the same 5-year period.
Additional information on the USC Mentoring Awards, including dossier requirements and submittal information, can be found at: http://faculty.usc.edu/mentoring/awards.
The nomination deadline is Monday, January 29, 2024. 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 November 2025