Posted: March 28, 2024
Every academic year, the University of Florida Graduate School’s Graduate Student Mentoring Awards (GSMA) spotlight UF graduate students who go the extra mile by mentoring fellow graduate students, undergraduate students, students in kindergarten through 12th grade, or teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade.
A committee of UF faculty and staff with mentoring experience choose nominees for this honor on the basis of academic performance, professional experience, mentoring philosophy and effectiveness, and their impact on their mentees’ academic and professional growth.
Congratulations to our six GSMA winners for 2023-2024:
Orlando Acevedo-Charry
Doctor of Philosophy candidate
Interdisciplinary Ecology · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
Orlando Acevedo-Charry credits his success in mentoring to treating mentees as peers. He notes that mentoring has a habit of turning into a two-way street — a mutually enriching exchange in which both parties gain and grow through engaging each other’s interests, lines of inquiry, and discoveries.
Jane Hsi
Doctor of Philosophy student
Medical Sciences · Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
College of Medicine
Jane Hsi says that understanding her mentees’ aspirations is a priority in her mentoring. That starting point informs her highly individualized mentoring approach, which she tailors to meet each mentee’s need. Empathy and encouragement are likewise pivotal in how she puts mentorship into practice.
Sebastian Jugl
Doctor of Philosophy student
Pharmaceutical Sciences · Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy
College of Pharmacy
Sebastian Jugl acts on the conviction that effective mentoring requires commitment and adaptability. He employs active listening, structured feedback, and sharing personal experience to build rapport and encourage dialogue for mentorship connections characterized by trust, open communication, and reciprocal growth.
Andrew Moore
Doctor of Philosophy candidate
Medical Sciences · Neuroscience
College of Pharmacy
Andrew Moore finds that mentoring not only helps his mentees to learn and grow, but also enables him to rediscover the curiosity and passion that drove him into his academic pursuits in the first place. His purposeful focus on his own mentees is his way of repaying past mentors who helped him get to where he is today.
Hanna Vance
Doctor of Philosophy student
Psychology
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Hanna Vance draws on her past experience as a mentee to mentor her own mentees today. She sees creating experiences aligned with mentees’ goals and interests, plus providing learning opportunities for mentees to improve skill deficits, as key to the dynamics of impactful mentoring.
Sabrina Zequeira
Doctor of Philosophy candidate
Medical Sciences · Neuroscience
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Sabrina Zequeira values her opportunities to mentor across educational levels and training stages, including high school and college. The biggest reward she gleans from mentoring is finding that former mentees of hers have evolved into mentors in their own right. Powerful proof of the ripple effect of mentorship!
Thank you to all of our GSMA winners for making a difference in others’ lives through mentoring!
To learn more about the Graduate Student Mentoring Awards, click here — GSMA — or email our Graduate Student Success Center at grad-success@ufl.edu.
Graduate School