Endowed scholarship honors inaugural college dean, will provide critical support to students
[ Editor's note: This article was first published in the Campaign Insider email newsletter. To view all previous campaign emails, click here. ]
When Catherine Clark first took on the mantle of dean of College of Sciences and Engineering, one of the many projects she picked up was growing a fund created to honor professor Arlan Norman, a friendly face at Western from 2003 to 2011 and the founding dean of the college, during which time both the Advanced Materials Science and Engineering Center (AMSEC) and the Institute for Energy Studies got their start.
“It turned out to be a win-win situation,” says Clark. “I met Arlie early on when I came to Western, and he’s been a real mentor to me. He’s very, very kind and very giving of his time, a real a stand-up person. He’s been supportive and we have good synergy. It was easy for me to get behind this project because I valued him.”
And that attitude seems to be par for the course. “Everybody loves Arlie,” Clark affirms. “It was the perfect way for me to meet a lot of people, such an easy entrée to say, ‘You know, I want to talk to you about Arlie.’ So many people simply said, ‘Yes, I’d love to.’ So I got to have lunches and coffees and really got to know so many people through that venture. It’s been really fun to fundraise for it.”
The Arlan Norman Award for Excellence in Student Mentoring will have a direct impact on faculty, students and their research: the award recognizes a CSE faculty member for excellence in mentoring student research, with preference given to graduate research; it also provides a significant stipend to support the summer research of a student(s) selected by the faculty mentor. “This award recognizes one of the things we really value in the college which is the mentoring of students on research by faculty,” says Clark.
It’s the perfect way to honor someone who practiced the art of mentorship perfectly, according to vice provost and dean for graduate research Kathleen Kitto who, as a lead donor, was instrumental in establishing the endowment: “I had the deep pleasure of working with Arlie the very day the college was established until his retirement,” says Kitto. “Because of his strong leadership, courage, wisdom, creativity, his commitment to mentorship and his good humor, he led a college that continues to thrive.”
For Norman, who with his wife Diane has also contributed to the fund, that mentorship-in-research aspect is critical. “If a student is going to be best equipped in our competitive world,” notes Norman, “they really need to have had some experience with a research project, to have developed some of the critical thinking skills required for an original project.” For Norman, who remains proud, too, of his college’s efforts to incorporate more women – both as faculty and students – as well as extending Western’s connections to the local tech community, this fund is a perfect University fit. “Western has faculty that are exceptionally committed to working directly with the students, and high-quality research supervision becomes something that we ought to recognize. It’s one of the most important things in a student’s education that they encounter.”