Dr. John Anderson, W.H. Drury Professor of Ecology and Natural History at College of the Atlantic (COA) in Bar Harbor, ME, has been selected as the 2024 Council on Undergraduate Research – Goldwater Scholars Faculty Mentor Awardee. The award gifts $5,000 for the awardee’s undergraduate research program.
Dr. Anderson attributes his career to his mentors and good fortune. As he sees it, he wasn’t an exceptional student, but with luck, he was taken under the wings of mentors who listened to and valued him, saw his potential, and guided him when he most needed it. These formative experiences shaped his philosophy of teaching and mentoring.
Although humble about calling himself a mentor, Dr. Anderson has indeed mentored many successful students and Goldwater Scholars throughout his career. “Listening,” Dr. Anderson said, is critical. Of the more than 100 students he has mentored and listened to, 16 have been recognized by the Goldwater Scholarship Foundation, while many more have gone on to pursue careers in research, academic administration, and public policy.
“I am enormously touched and grateful to receive the award, but honestly I feel that in reality it goes to the amazing students—both past Goldwater awardees and oh so many others—who I have been privileged to work with over these many years,” Dr. Anderson said. “I have been so very lucky that these remarkable young people saw something in what I had to offer and for a brief time allowed me to call myself their teacher.”
According to his students, Dr. Anderson is a committed mentor who inspires excellence, diligence, and confidence. With his experiential approaches in the field and continued listening from start to finish, Dr. Anderson gives all he has to his students, reminding himself that he is not the “main event”— they are. He inspires them to learn from their mistakes and helps them gain the knowledge and confidence to overcome all that is put in their path.
“The CUR-Goldwater Scholars Faculty Mentor Award needed to be created to enable our community to recognize exceptional mentors like John Anderson,” said John Mateja, President of the Goldwater Scholarship Foundation. “John’s mentoring is not about John or his research, it is about helping his students find their passions and career interests.”
Dr. Anderson’s Goldwater nominees, students like Nicole Cabana ’99, the current deputy director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Woods Hole Lab and a Knauss Fellow, have been bright and dedicated, he said. Students who come early, stay late, ask for extra readings, and come to his office waiving a paper wanting to know why the editor missed an important point. He said he tries not to smile to show his glee as they talk.
“They’ve been willing to take chances, both in terms of intellect and in terms of surf, snow, rain, fog, desert sands, guano, and gull vomit, and somehow they kept their tempers, enhanced their curiosity, and maintained a sense of humor,” Dr. Anderson said.
“Dr. Anderson has modelled exemplary dedication to advancing undergraduate research through mentoring,” said Lindsay Currie, executive officer of CUR. “With his continued listening, his mentoring style, and his overall outlook on mentorship, Dr. Anderson is the definition of a Goldwater Scholars Faculty Mentor, and we are excited to honor him as the 2024 recipient.”
Dr. Anderson credits COA’s embrace of community and place-based, experiential approach to education the successes that so many of his mentees have had. “At COA there is no one mentor for a student, here many faculty contribute to a student’s education and development as a human ecologist,” Dr. Anderson said. “It has been a privilege to be part of all this.”
Founded in 1978, the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) focuses on providing high-quality and collaborative undergraduate research, scholarly, and creative activity. Among the many activities and networking opportunities that CUR provides, the organization also offers support for the professional growth of faculty and administrators through expert-designed institutes, conferences, and a wide-range of volunteer positions. The CUR community, made up of nearly 700 institutions and 13,000 individuals, continues to provide a platform for discussion and other resources related to mentoring, connecting, and creating relationships centered around undergraduate research. CUR’s advocacy efforts are also a large portion of its work as they strive to strengthen support for undergraduate research. Its continued growth in connections with representatives, private foundations, government agencies, and campuses world-wide provides value to its members and gives voice to undergraduate research. CUR is committed to inclusivity and diversity in all of its activities and our community.
CUR focuses on giving a voice to undergraduate research with learning through doing. It provides connections to a multitude of campuses and government agencies, all while promoting networking and professional growth to its community.
Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation: By providing scholarships to college sophomores and juniors who intend to pursue research careers in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering, the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation is helping to ensure that the United States is producing the number of highly qualified professionals needed by the nation in these critical fields.
Founded in 1969, College of the Atlantic was the first college in the U.S. to focus on the relationship between humans and the environment. The intentionally small school of 350 students and 35 faculty enriches the liberal arts tradition through a distinctive educational philosophy—human ecology. A human ecological perspective integrates knowledge from all academic disciplines and from personal experience to investigate—and ultimately improve—the relationships between human beings and our social, natural, built, and technological environments. The human ecological perspective guides all aspects of education, research, activism, and interactions among the college’s students, faculty, staff, and trustees. COA has been named the #1 Green College by The Princeton Review since 2016. Learn more at coa.edu.
