Deputy Provost John Siliciano presented Cornell faculty members Sahara Byrne, (Kit-Yee) Daisy Fan, María Cristina García and James P. Lassoie with 2016 Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Awards May 28 at a trustee-faculty dinner.
Byrne, associate professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ (CALS) Department of Communication, researches and teaches about media effects, media and youth, with a focus on evaluating youth campaigns that discourage risky behavior. She empowers students in and outside class, and as a faculty fellow who lived in a residence hall she was commended by students for her accessibility and community building.
Fan, senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science, College of Engineering, teaches programming, scientific computing and optimization. From 2003 to 2012, she was a faculty fellow at Court-Kay-Bauer Hall, where she developed and participated in academic-social events, and she is active in local K-12 education. Her students have described her as a “beacon” whose understanding and advice about how to succeed at Cornell has proved invaluable.
García, the Howard A. Newman Professor of American Studies, Department of History and Latina/o Studies Program, College of Arts and Sciences, studies refugees, immigrants, exiles and transnationals in the Americas. Her students say she is more than an academic adviser and acts as a mentor whose kindness and high standards encourages them to explore the larger world.
Lassoie, professor and CALS International Professor of Conservation, Department of Natural Resources, teaches sustainable natural resource management and the application of interdisciplinary science to conservation. He developed the Conservation Bridge learning platform to connect real-world practitioners with his students and advisees, one of whom described him as “aspirational as well as inspirational.”
Carpenter award recipients receive $5,000 each. The awards, which underscore of the importance of undergraduate advising, were established by trustee Stephen Ashley ’62, MBA ’64, to honor his adviser, the late Professor Kendall S. Carpenter, who taught business management from 1954 to 1967.
This article was originally published in the Cornell Chronicle.
