Award-winning Meline believes in "being real with students"

The awards rack up, but for Becky Meline, the students are what matters. Meline is a recipient of the 2020 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Academic Advising. This award is given to two people annually to recognize their sustained excellence in undergraduate advising. She works as the Coordinator of Academic Programs in NPRE and also coordinates and co-instructs NPRE 100--an orientation course--and NPRE 199, a series of seminars to help students get more involved in research.

Every day, Meline strives to make an impact in the lives of undergraduate and graduate students by helping them succeed in their coursework and find opportunities in scholarships, internships and research. Here, she shares about her experiences and what she does to help her students succeed.

When asked about her typical daily activities, she said, “There is no typical day. In general, my situation is unique in that I advise both undergraduate and graduate students. A typical day can go from advising an undergrad on course selection to advising a graduate student on their dissertation to hosting a meeting to going over degree audits for seniors to make sure they graduate.”

Meline is passionate about connecting her students to opportunities. She also believes that being honest with her students and telling them what they need to hear is critical to their success.

“I believe in being real with students,” she said. “I am a very transparent individual. I believe that the students appreciate that

and it makes me very approachable. One of the advantages that I have is that I have been with the department for a very long time. I am familiar with what we do, but also with the alumni. I am able to connect students to faculty with whom they are interested in doing research with, I am able to connect them with employers, with national labs for those looking for internships and research experiences. Most of the time, students are not aware of all the options that are available for them. For example, scholarships, internships, research, job opportunities, graduate school, early graduation.”  

She is also this year’s recipient of the 2020 Engineering Council Outstanding Advising Award. Despite the many different responsibilities of the job and the challenges of advising, Meline feels that what she does is incredibly rewarding.

“Being an advisor in a smaller department, I work with all the students and see them graduate from the program,” she said. “What is very rewarding is when you realize you had an impact on someone’s life. You helped them get into grad school, med school, first job, research position with faculty. We have many first-generation students--their parents didn't go through college. They [the parents] may want to help out, but don't know how to do so. Working with underrepresented students is also rewarding. Helping students who don't know what to do with a degree or [students who] may not feel their resume is strong enough for grad school is rewarding. Just the other day, I had two alumni who stopped by my office to say hi. Seeing students going off to do great things is very rewarding.”

If Meline had to summarize the single most important thing that an advisor can do, it would be to help them manage their stress and focus on their goals.

“The one thing I enjoy with working with students is trying to get them to look at what is essential and important at that time,” Meline said. “Students have a lot of noise. Things that distract them. We have a lot of students who have a lot of stress factors. Being real with students, being approachable, and giving an outside view to help them get results.”

Now more than ever, being able to block out the “noise” and really focus on what is important is critical.