Fiona Goodchild |
Meet Fiona Goodchild—the Mentors’ Mentor
The woman behind hundreds of mentors to UCSB undergraduates—more
than 150 faculty plus talented, supportive graduate students—is
Fiona Goodchild, now education director of the California NanoSystems
Institute (CNSI). For more than 15 years, Dr. Goodchild has been
creating outreach and mentored research programs for a diverse
group of undergraduate students—especially underrepresented
minorities.
Mentoring—Part of the Campus Culture
More than 70 formally sponsored internships in science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics are in place through programs Dr.
Goodchild initiated. Her efforts have made a tremendous impact
on undergraduate education; on faculty research; on the way area
public
schools
and community colleges guide, encourage, and prepare students
to attend a great research university; and on the lives of the
students
who have participated.
An Award at the White House
The White House and the National Science Foundation (NSF) agree.
President George W. Bush presented Dr. Goodchild with the 2003
Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and
Engineering Mentoring, which NSF administers. With the $10,000
in prize money from the award, $10,000 from the Office of the Chancellor,
and a gift of the same amount from Goodchild and her husband Michael,
a UCSB geographer and geographic information scentist, she established
the Fiona Goodchild Award for excellence as a Graduate Student
Mentor of Undergraduate Research. When the endowment established
with the money is fully funded, 10 to 12 summer scholarships of
$1,000 each will be awarded annually.
“The graduate students who mentor undergraduate researchers bring
motivation, openness, enthusiasm, and great conscientiousness
to their work,” Dr. Goodchild says. “Many of these undergraduates
have gone on to successful careers in education, research, and
industry. A good example is Ray Simmonds—a former student
in the Community College Interns in Materials Research program
who went on to earn his PhD in physics at Berkeley."
Undergraduate research programs
|
