Courtney Desmond, specialist in the Academic Support Center at Eastern, discusses the joys of mentoring students. (photo courtesy of Courtney Desmond)

The FA member excellence awards committee is proud to announce that Courtney Desmond, specialist in the Academic Support Center, has been selected as a 2021-22 recipient of the FA award for mentoring.

While our annual awards & retiree recognition celebration has been postponed until later this semester, we want people to know about Courtney's good work at the college. Below is my interview with Courtney as well as her nomination.

Q — Last year, our award recipients for mentoring were selected for mentoring and assisting colleagues. But your work is focused on mentoring students. Talk about your work with students.  

The Academic Support Center (ASC), on the second floor of Montaukett, has seen some changes in the past year or so. We now have the Academic Advisement and Mentoring Center (AAMC) up there. I work in the AAMC helping students with DegreeWorks, making schedules and connecting them with faculty in the major that they’re interested in. In addition to the AAMC and the tutoring services we offer, the ASC is also running a program called Study Hour. This is a study session for 75 minutes each week where students come in with their goals for the week, do their coursework and have me there to help them with whatever they need help with, whether it be staying organized or learning study strategies. We originally started with probationary or academic dismissal students, but now it’s opened up to any students who want this kind of support. Last semester we averaged 35 students a week and we have about 55 enrolled right now. The students really appreciate the individualized attention.

My philosophy on mentoring is to get to know each student and their unique situation as best as I can so I can help them get to where they want to be. I try to create a comfortable atmosphere for them and really take the time to listen. It’s important to me to be open minded and encouraging as well as realistic with our students. I help them define their goals, short term or long term, and we focus on what steps are needed to get there. I also remind them that not knowing exactly what they want to do is okay and very common. I believe as long as they take small steps forward, things will fall into place.

I love SCCC because of the range of students we get, and it’s really fun on my part to get to know so many different people from different walks of life. I have worked with students in developmental courses, ESL credit and ELL non-credit classes as well as with honors students. No matter what type of courses the student is enrolled in, everyone has strengths, and if I can help students recognize and utilize these strengths, then that will hopefully contribute to their success at SCCC and beyond.

Q — Another way SCCC students have been fortunate enough to work with you is through your work with the Phi Theta Kappa honor society.

I’m the Eastern Campus co-advisor of PTK along with Dr. Penny Bealle. We have weekly meetings, and the students focus on two major projects: an Honors in Action project and a college project, which is focused on helping the college or campus community. This semester, our PTK chapter is hoping to put an interpretive sign outside the Shinnecock Building to educate the community about the Shinnecock Nation, so it’s more than just a name on a building.

PTK is some of my favorite work at the college because I get to work with students on so many levels, academically and socially. Through the projects we do and the different volunteer and travel opportunities, amazing relationships are built and it’s very cool to watch the ways in which the students grow, just as I do too. I feel privileged to be working with PTK because it has broadened my perspective of the student experience here at SCCC and opened my eyes to different opportunities for students.

Q — You’ve also helped to develop an introductory library course for developmental reading students?

Yes! I believe we started it in 2017. Susan Voorhees-McLaughlin, the reading professor on the Eastern Campus, and I wanted to do something different than the Pearson Lab. Pearson is decontextualized reading comprehension computer questions for the students to click, and we wanted to see students working on something more authentic. We introduced an I-search project and, along with help from our library faculty, taught them how to conduct some basic research. It was really a great foundation for them, since so many had no idea how to do research. I don’t currently work with the reading labs anymore so I haven’t been able to continue with it, but I know Professor Voorhees-McLaughlin still does it with her students.

Q — What advice do you have for encouraging other FA members to become even more involved in actively mentoring students? How and why should we make the time to fit this into our work each semester?

When you spend so much time at work, it becomes your second home. I want to feel as connected to as much of the college as possible and to feel invested within the community. There are so many interesting, talented people who work here, so the more that people contribute, the richer everything gets at the college. Also, I think it’s true that the more you put into something, the more you get out of it. The relationships that we build with these students don’t just help them, they genuinely make us happy too.

Q — What does it mean to you to be nominated for and to receive this award? And to be a union member: Any thoughts to share about the FA?

I want to say thank you to the FA for creating these awards. Reading these interviews is a great way to get to know more about our colleagues, and it’s always important to recognize good work being done at the college. Plus, it’s always refreshing to read good news! It feels wonderful to be acknowledged for my work here, and I really want to thank Fabio Montella for nominating me and the committee for selecting me.

I’m grateful for the FA because there is always so much going on in our world and in education, and they have done a wonderful job keeping me informed and making me feel supported. I like to know that assistance is there when I need it, that I can get clarification on issues, and I’ve always felt I could go to the FA for both. Plus, between awards such as this, The WORD and events, the FA helps to make its members feel more connected.

Award: Outstanding Mentoring
Nominee: Courtney Desmond, Specialist, Academic Support Center (Eastern)

It is with great honor and conviction that I nominate Courtney Desmond for the 2021-22 FA Outstanding Mentoring Award. Through our collaborations and various first-hand accounts, I have come to witness the impact that Courtney’s continual mentoring has had on the students of our community.

As a specialist in the Eastern Campus Academic Support Center, Courtney’s role at the college is literally predicated on mentoring. In the Academic Advising and Mentoring Center, students have come to know Courtney as a go-to resource for their schedules, academic plans and future trajectories. In addition to performing these tasks at an exceptionally high level, Courtney has worked tirelessly with ELL/ESL students and developmental reading students in their labs to ensure that they receive the resources and mentorship that they require.

A perfect example of such came in the fall of 2018 when Courtney, along with Professor Susan Voorhees-McLaughlin, brought to my attention a glaring need at the Eastern Campus: introductory library instruction for ELL/ESL and developmental reading students. When I emphatically agreed to work alongside Courtney to fulfill this need, I was not aware of the impending work ethic that I was about to witness. Courtney transformed into a superhero-like educator that constructed plans, collected data, conducted research, performed assessments and never skipped a beat. When I was finally able to catch my breath and admire the quantity and quality of her work, I began to realize two things: first, Courtney is an invaluable asset to our institution and second she positively impacts the success of our student body every single day. I have come to know this from my work with Courtney, and I feel it is my duty to make all of you aware of this as well.

While Courtney’s diligence and accomplishments in the AAMC alone could justify her receiving the Outstanding Mentoring Award, it is her tremendous impact as a Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) faculty advisor that I believe makes her the ideal recipient of this honor. In the past three years, Courtney has helped organize and run PTK fundraisers such as fun runs, food drives and charity walks, and she has been an integral part of the Honors in Action Project which has produced some of the most impressive and useful research projects that our students have ever worked on. In addition, she has ensured that PTK’s scholarships and benefits have reached as many of our students as possible. To list all of the work that Courtney has done with our PTK students would require a book and, believe me, as the author of this nomination, I've had to summarize a great deal of what Courtney has done.

But her greatest success as a PTK faculty advisor, in my opinion, has been the impact she has had on the development and confidence of our PTK members. She has helped numerous students in recognizing their abilities and reaching their potential. She has shown them what hard work can accomplish, and she has manifested success in front of their very eyes. Whether it was her individual work with PTK members or her work with the group as a whole, Courtney has left every PTK member better off than the day she met them.

I know this to be true because many of those students were in my classes. Many of those students were transformed over the course of a semester. I have heard the praises they have given her, and I have seen the growth she has nurtured in them. Courtney Desmond doesn’t just teach, she prepares our students for the world outside of Suffolk. I consider Courtney a colleague and a friend, and I appreciate her more than this letter can ever express. In closing, I ask you, the committee, to recognize Courtney Desmond as the outstanding mentor that she is and will undoubtedly continue to be.