Students who want to recognize a CWRU faculty or staff member who is helping them refine their career goals, fostering their personal development and facilitating their goals and life choices now can nominate those mentors for the J. Bruce Jackson Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring.

The late Dean Carl F. Wittke befriended, advised and offered friendship to J. Bruce Jackson during his undergraduate years at Adelbert College. To honor his mentor, Jackson, a medical doctor who graduated in 1952, has established the J. Bruce Jackson, Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring to recognize the outstanding advising and mentoring of undergraduate students by a CWRU current or emeritus faculty or staff member.

The first Jackson Award honoree will be recognized during commencement in May alongside the recipients of the Carl F. Wittke Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching. The award comes with a plaque and $2,000 for the recipient.

"When we recognize outstanding teaching through the Wittke Award, we are able to recognize faculty members for their efforts in the classroom and their ability to engage students in their courses and to motivate them," said Mayo Bulloch, the Wittke/Jackson Awards adviser. "Through the new Jackson Award, we are now able to recognize individuals who may have made a difference in the life of perhaps just one individual student. We are also able to allow a student to thank his or her mentor publicly and to honor a CWRU faculty (or a staff member) whose dedication and concern might otherwise go unnoticed."

In this, the first year of the Jackson Award, one recipient will be named, but in the future there may be as many as two honorees annually.

"Recognizing the skills and the rewards of mentoring individual students can help all of us to realize the lasting impact that we can make in the life on an individual," Bulloch said "Taking the time to listen and to offer support and encouragement is an investment that has far-reaching benefits."

All CWRU undergraduates and alumni are eligible to submit nominations by March 21 but must have been mentored by the individual proposed for the award. All nominees must hold a current or emeritus appointment with the University.

The award recipient will be selected by a Jackson Award committee, composed of undergraduate students, faculty and alumni. Serving on this year's committee are Arnold Dahm, professor emeritus of physics; alumni Fulter Hong and Ganesh Laxminarayan; and undergraduates Andrew Brinkman, Jessica Endlich, Kenneth Franko, Nicholas Hanek, Bryan Inderhees, Tama Porter, Rachel Ward and Ikei White.

The selection committee will review nominations and interview lead candidates and their nominators.

Nominations for the award can be submitted electronically at http://ess.cwru.edu/wittke or in writing to Mayo Bulloch, Wittke/Jackson Adviser, Student Affairs, at Educational Support Services, Kelvin Smith Library, Room 105. For more information, contact Bulloch at 216-368-5320.