Two Kent State advisers received nationally-recognized awards for excellence in advising.

Barbara Miller, exploratory adviser in Undergraduate Studies, and Benjamin Newberry, psychology adviser and teacher, won a 2005 Outstanding Advising Award from the National Academic Advising Association. They accepted the awards in a Las Vegas ceremony honoring excellence in advising throughout the United States.

Miller was among eight winners in the category of primary role academic advising and Newberry was one of 10 who received the award for faculty academic advising.

“This award is a testament to the mentoring I received at Kent State and the significance that Kent State puts on academic advising,” said Miller, who has been working at the university for the past 10 years, five of which were spent advising in Undergraduate Studies.

Since 1979, National Academic Advising Association has been celebrating excellence in academic advising across the country. Since its inception it has become the premier institution for promoting the importance of advising, Miller said.

“Hopefully Kent State winning these awards will help raise the profile of advising,” Newberry said. “NACADA (National Academic Advising Association) is extremely concerned with this and a lot of students go to college and don’t get the guidance they need.”

Newberry began teaching at Kent State in 1969, and has served as an academic adviser to psychology students ever since. During his time at the university he has received numerous awards for teaching, including the Arts and Sciences’ Outstanding Teaching Award and the Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award, but he said that his advising work was important to him as well.

“I’ve been very concerned with advising for a long time,” Newberry said. “It’s terribly important in letting students get degrees that actually work for them. You have to fine-tune a student’s course of study for his long-term goals.”

Miller, who received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Kent State, said she feels academic advising helps students learn about themselves and set goals for their lives.

Newberry is ecstatic to have received the award.

“I’ll admit it, I jumped up and down a little bit when I learned that I had won,” Newberry said.

Miller was working late in her office when she learned she won the award.

“I read the notification three or four times just to make sure it was really me,” Miller said. “I was pleased and felt honored because being recognized by the premier national organization for advising is such a blessing.”

Contact undergraduate office reporter Robert Taylor at [email protected].