Dr. Mark Harrington MS ’10 and Allison Kurthy MS ’22
The annual Jesuit Association of Student Personnel Administrators (JASPA) conference was held in Baltimore from Friday, March 18 through Sunday, March 20. The annual conference includes meetings of the senior student affairs officers at the 28 Jesuit schools in the United States and Belize, leadership meetings for the executive board of the organization, a keynote speaker and the JASPA Annual Awards of Excellence Ceremony.
At this ceremony, the association confers awards on individuals, programs, and initiatives on campuses that have had a significant impact on the student experience in Ignatian tradition.
Canisius community members and programs were four finalist nominees for this year’s awards in three categories: The nominees included the First-Gen Griffs initiative as a nominee for the Ignatian Medal for Outstanding Campus Program. Allison Kurthy MS ’22 and Kaylee Konzal ’19, MS ’22 as nominees for the Ignatian Medal for Outstanding Graduate Assistant in Jesuit Student Affairs, and the Canisius research study on “Academic Mentoring in the Ignatian Tradition: The Impact of Incorporating Jesuit Values into a Comprehensive New Student Mentoring Program” as a nominee for the JASPA Scholarship Award.
Allison Kurthy MS ’22, a current Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration (HESAA) student, was the recipient of the Ignatian Medal for Outstanding Graduate Assistant in Jesuit Student Affairs. She serves as a graduate assistant in the Griff Center for Student Success. The nominators for the award shared that she is deeply committed to caring for Canisius students and ensuring that they are successful both inside and outside of the classroom. In addition, she has assisted with retention efforts, implementation of a first year experience, and assists with the weekly management of our care team.
The JASPA Scholarship Award recognizes distinguished contributions to research in the areas of Jesuit and Catholic student affairs work and higher education. This year’s recipient of the JASPA Scholarship Award was the Canisius mixed-methods research study on Academic Mentoring in the Jesuit Tradition conducted by Dr. Mark Harrington MS ’10 and Stephanie Wolcott MS ’22. Dr. Mark Harrington serves as Canisius’ assistant vice president for student development and academic success as well as an assistant professor and director of the HESAA graduate program. Stephanie Wolcott is 2021 HESAA graduate and currently serves as an academic advisor at the New York Institute of Technology. The research study looked at the impact of Jesuit values in the formation of a comprehensive academic mentoring program to support students with the transition to college who were placed academically at-risk.
Click here to read more about the JASPA conference and the categories in which Canisius took home awards.
Submitted by: Mark Harrington, EdD, assistant vice president, Student Development and Academic Success; assistant professor and director, HESAA
