Nominations are now open for two Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS) awards honouring outstanding mentorship and leadership within the graduate community at Brock.

The Marilyn Rose Graduate Leadership Award, named in honour of Brock’s former Dean of Graduate Studies (2005-2011), recognizes faculty, staff and students who have demonstrated leadership in enhancing graduate studies at the University. The award winner will receive $500 and a certificate of recognition.

The Michael Plyley Graduate Mentorship Awards, named in honour of Brock’s former Dean of Graduate Studies (2011-16), recognizes the essential role of mentorship in graduate education in two categories: Mentorship of master’s students only and mentorship of both master’s and PhD students. Graduate students are invited to submit nominations. Award winners receive $1,000 to assist with ongoing graduate student mentorship.

Vice-Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Suzanne Curtin acknowledged the importance of recognizing outstanding leadership.

“These awards highlight significant contributions to our graduate community. Leadership in graduate education helps enhance our students’ experiences and the Marilyn Rose award celebrates our students, staff and faculty as they demonstrate excellence in leadership,” she said. “Quality supervision is one of the best predictors of graduate student satisfaction and the Michael Plyley award allows us to acknowledge and also celebrate supervisors’ contributions to and excellence in all aspects of graduate student mentorship.”

Nomination criteria, guidelines and the selection process for each of the honours can be  The deadline for nominations is Friday, April 1.

In addition to the FGS awards, the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) has six student awards available, with nominations due by Monday, March 14. These include:

• Academic Excellence Award
• Community and Engagement Award
• Volunteer of the Year Award
• Teaching Assistant of the Year Award
• Outstanding Graduate Mentorship
• President’s Award

The GSA student awards recognize outstanding commitment, service and leadership by Brock graduate students. Winners will be announced at the GSA’s Starlight Gala on Saturday, April 2.

“Our exceptional graduate students deserve to be recognized,” said GSA President Christopher Yendt. “We know the GSA Gala presents the perfect opportunity, as graduate students come together after the past few years, to acknowledge incredible contributions and achievements by our members. We are excited to be returning to a physical format and to offer the opportunity to recognize the outstanding commitments to the graduate experience that our students exemplify every day.”

For more information about the awards, visit the FGS website and the GSA website.