| This year’s winners of the university’s Outstanding Undergraduate Academic Advising Award are Brian Fairchild, a faculty member in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and S. Clayton Foggin, an academic adviser in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
The award is presented each spring to faculty and staff who excel in helping students select classes and assisting them with academic needs. The award also recognizes advisers for offering guidance on matters such as graduate school and career decisions and helping students deal with non-academic issues.
Fairchild, an associate professor of poultry science, has been an adviser for seven years and advises 35-40 students in animal health, avian biology, biological science and poultry science in the CAES each term, and assists with summer orientation in his college.
Fairchild challenges his advisees to take advantage of the many academic opportunities available to them at UGA, according to those who nominated him. As one former student, now enrolled in the College of Veterinary Medicine, wrote in her letter of support for his nomination, “I may have made it into vet school without Dr. Fairchild’s help, but I would never have had such a rewarding undergraduate career without him.”
Foggin has been an academic adviser for 11 years. Her primary advising area is pre-journalism, and she advises more than 200 freshmen and sophomores each term.
A colleague in the Grady College who works closely with Foggin said, “Exceptional advising requires empathy and firmness, support and challenge, leadership and collaboration, self-confidence and humility, and a generosity of both time and spirit. Clayton Foggin is the rare individual who embodies all these qualities in an exceptional balance.”
Fairchild and Foggin each will receive a cash award and a plaque. They will be recognized at Honors Day April 7 and at the Faculty Recognition Banquet on April 21. |
