ASSISTANT PROFESSOR GETS FIRST SPICER MENTOR AWARD

The first Southeast Missouri State University Edward M. Spicer Memorial Mentor of the Year award has been presented to Dr. Thomas Wallgren, Southeast assistant professor of computer science.

The newly created award is designed to recognize persons who demonstrate the qualities of an extraordinary mentor.

The concept was developed by Linda Vogelsang, professional staff counseling chairperson of the Center for Health and Counseling. It was awarded for the first time this year. The award was presented at the Minority Recognition Dinner in April.

Wallgren was nominated by freshman Erica Hubbard of St. Louis. Wallgren and Hubbard met in Wallgren's class. Hubbard said Wallgren acted as an informal mentor for her.

"He took a special interest in me, which really helped. Sometimes it took that extra `Hello, how are you doing? Is everything going OK?' to keep me going."

Wallgren later became an official mentor for Hubbard.

"He's really humble, a really nice man," Hubbard said. "His door is always open to me. I can talk to him about just about anything, sometimes just about family life or recreation time, or sometimes about Computer Club -- just whatever I need to talk about."

"I think the mentoring can be a very formal kind of thing, but she's here in the department, and we see each other all the time," Wallgren said.

In conjunction with the award, Trent Ball, coordinator of the Office of Minority Student Programs, was named a Spicer Mentor at the Minority Recognition Dinner.

The Edward M. Spicer Memorial Mentor of the Year award was created in memory of the late Dr. Edward M. Spicer, who taught many students, staff and faculty at Southeast as associate to the president.