COE research and evaluation methodology professor David Miller made quite a statement on his way to winning a Doctoral Mentoring Award sponsored recently by the UF Graduate School.
David Miller helps celebrate the graduation of two of his mentees, Miao Gao (left) and Janna Underhill.
“The core of mentoring is based on long-term commitment to building a mutually beneficial relationship with students,” Miller wrote in a mentoring statement required by the selection committee. “The mentoring relationship evolves over time and becomes deeper through the shared experience of advancing the research and career goals of the mentee.”
Miller’s philosophy is based on an intellectual relationship he had with the late Dr. Leigh Burnstein, Miller’s adviser and mentor when Miller was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles more than three decades ago.
“That relationship had a profound affect on me,” said Miller, a COE faculty member since 1998 who next month replaces Harry Daniels as director of the college’s School of Human Development and Organizational Studies in Education.
“I’ve always enjoyed working with younger talent, and UF has a longstanding tradition for mentoring that hasn’t always been recognized through awards,” he added. “There’s also a strong mentoring ethic here in HDOSE, so I consider myself very fortunate.”
The annual award encourages and rewards excellence, innovation and effectiveness in mentoring doctoral and master of fine arts students through their final dissertation or thesis project. Each winner receives $3,000, with an additional $1,000 deposited into each recipient’s department account for use in supporting doctoral or master of fine arts students.
Miller was one of four UF faculty members to receive the 2014-2015 Doctoral Mentoring Award.
Contacts
Liaison: Larry Lansford, director, College of Education Office of News and Communications; llansford@coe.ufl.edu; phone 352-273-4137.
Writer: Stephen Kindland, College of Education Office of News and Communications; skindland@coe.ufl.edu; phone 352-273-3449.