Morris, Martinelli win Evans Award for Advising Excellence

Melissa Morris and David Martinelli

As many students can attest, good academic advising can make all the difference to a college experience. A good adviser does more than just tell students what classes to take. A good adviser works with students to map out the intellectual journey they want to take over the course of their college career's and beyond. A great adviser does this work so thoughtfully and with such dedication that they motivate and inspire hundreds of students every year.

Recognizing the great advising that happens on our campus, West Virginia University has presented the Nick Evans Award for Advising Excellence for 2015 to four academic adviser, two of which are in the Statler College.

Melissa Morris, teaching assistant professor in freshman engineering, and David Martinelli, professor of civil and environmental engineering, were recognized as faculty members who do student advising as part of their appointments.

"I think it's almost impossible to overstate the importance of dedicated, personalized advising to a successful college career," says Elizabeth Dooley, associate provost for undergraduate academic affairs. "For our students, advising can make the difference between just getting a degree and finding a career path you are really passionate about."

For Morris, her passion for her role comes from developing sustained relationships with students throughout their college careers.

"I make them promise to come back and tell me how they are doing," she says. "I tell them I will always be there to cheer them on." Morris, who also teaches engineering courses, wrote 67 reference letters for current and former advisees last year.

The mentorship that faculty adviser Martinelli offers his students is "an extra dimension," according to his nominator Radhey Sharma. "It's the marriage of teaching and advising," Sharma said. "He meets students where they are."

Martinelli himself emphasizes all that he has learned in 24 years as a professor and adviser. "We should expect unique challenges," he says. "You have to demonstrate sincerity and concern. Expressing such thoughts and feelings takes courage and honesty, but it is essential."

Dean Nick Evans, the adviser in whose honor the awards were created, spent 40 years at WVU. He was widely known and admired on campus for his dedication to academic advising, as an adviser himself and as a mentor to other advisers. The Nick Evans Awards for Advising Excellence was created after his retirement in 2008.

This year's winners each receive a $1,250 honorarium in professional development support.

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