About the Awards
Nominations
Award Categories
Selection Criteria
Eligibility Requirements
Selection Committee
Questions
Past Awardees

About the Boston University Undergraduate Academic Advising Awards:

The Academic Advising Awards annually recognize staff and faculty who have engaged students in the collaborative process of advising and have had a significant impact on students’ academic careers.

Winners receive an award of $1500 and are publicly recognized at the annual Advisor End-of-Year Celebration currently scheduled for Monday, May 4, 2026.

Nominations:

Boston University students, staff, faculty, and alumni are invited to nominate one eligible candidate per category per year.

Submit a Nomination

The nomination form is open from now until January 23, 2026.

Categories:

  1. Professional Academic Advisor: A staff member who formally serves as a student’s designated advisor. Students, of course, seek advice from many members of the university community who are not their official academic advisor, but these awards have been established to celebrate students’ formally designated academic advisors.
  2. Faculty Mentor: A faculty member whose primary responsibility is teaching and/or research and who spends a portion of their time mentoring undergraduate students. (The Faculty of Boston University consists of Assistant, Associate, and Full Professors; those with professorial titles modified by “Research,” “Clinical,” and “of the Practice”; Lecturers of all ranks; Instructors.)

Selection Criteria:

While academic advisors and faculty mentors may interact differently with students, all nominees must:

  • Engage students in the collaborative process of exploring and creating a rich, challenging undergraduate education.
  • Have a significant impact on students’ undergraduate experience.

Eligibility Requirements:

Professional Academic Advisor Eligibility Requirements: to be eligible for consideration, an academic advisor must:

  • Have held a full-time, continuing position for three years (not less than six semesters) at the time of nomination. The position does not have to have been the same position;
  • Be a current BU staff member;
  • Not be currently under review for promotion;
  • Not be on a leave of absence during the current academic year;
  • Not be a previous winner of a Boston University Undergraduate Academic Advising Award.

Faculty Mentor Eligibility Requirements: to be eligible for consideration, a faculty mentor must:

  • Have held a full-time, continuing position for three years (not less than six semesters) at the time of nomination. The position does not have to have been the same position;
  • Be a current BU faculty member;
  • Not be currently under review for promotion or tenure;
  • Not be on sabbatical leave or leave of absence during the current academic year;
  • Not be a previous winner of a Boston University Undergraduate Academic Advising Award.

Selection Committee:

The Academic Advising Awards Committee will ordinarily consist of at least two faculty/staff members from the Advising Network, a representative from the Office of the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Affairs, and two previous Academic Advising Award winners.

  • Matt Bae, chair, Director, Student Services & Advising, College of General Studies
  • Ali Audet, Academic Advisor, College of Communication
  • Elizabeth Carter, Undergraduate Academic Advisor, Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences
  • John “Chip” Celenza, Associate Professor, Biology, College of Arts & Sciences
  • M.C. Damm, Associate Director, Newbury Center
  • John Kirks, Master Lecturer, Strategy & Innovation, Questrom School of Business
  • Gloria Lopez, Director, Student Success, Undergraduate Affairs
  • Merav Shohet, Associate Professor, Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences
  • Liz Vassallo, Director, Undergraduate Student Services, Wheelock College of Education & Human Development

Questions:

If you have any questions or concerns about these awards, please email advising@bu.edu.