Sumedha Ariely, assistant professor of the practice of global health and formerly the DGHI student projects coordinator, is the first recipient of the DukeEngage Excellence in Mentoring Award. Over the past three years, Ariely has developed DGHI’s fieldwork program and provided global health and DukeEngage students with dedicated, quality mentoring.
The Excellence in Mentoring award is presented to a faculty or staff mentor who has demonstrated exceptional mentorship to DukeEngage independent project participants, and exceptional leadership and vision in promoting engagement within higher education. In the award letter, DukeEngage Executive Director Eric Mlyn writes, “You have mentored more students for DukeEngage than any other member of the Duke community. You bring to this work your deep knowledge of Global Health and an unwavering commitment to provide our students with the best possible field experience as well as a commitment to the communities they serve.”
With the expectation that her students take responsibility for their own learning, Ariely required students to send weekly email messages answering specific questions about their projects, challenges, successes and plans for the coming week. More impressively, Ariely’s commitment is evident by the time she spent preparing and mentoring students prior to arriving in the field, and managed to sustain that level of engagement and communication with each student throughout the summer. Since DGHI began the fieldwork program three years ago, Ariely has seen an extraordinary response from students because they understand that her expectations are important and substantive for their growth as global health field researchers.
“When speaking with students, Dr. Ariely has an unfounded ability to make students realize their unique potential to make a real change in their community,” said Dilip Nagarkar, who completed fieldwork in India last summer. “She has wholehearted faith in her students and stands by them throughout the project experience. Such talent and investment is what makes a fieldwork project with Dr. Ariely a defining experience of a Duke career.”
“Dr. Ariely has a truly unique way of simultaneously challenging and encouraging students in their work, encouraging them to pursue their own ideas while challenging them to be open to and actively seek those that are new,” said Meghan Rudder, who completed her fieldwork in Naama, Uganda last summer. “What sets Dr. Ariely apart from other mentors is the time and attention she devotes to each and every one of her mentees, from the way Dr. Ariely makes herself available to meet with her students whenever the need arises. It is clear that she invests herself fully in the growth and success of her students.”
Ariely created a fall semester event during which students present their summer projects. Again, she set an expectation with students that it would be a “professional” event, as if they were presenting at an international conference. Without fail, the students are prepared to present and are proud of their presentations and projects, and often credit Ariely for the success of their projects and value of their experiences.
Ariely has also worked closely with DukeEngage on development of a program in Haiti with Family Health Ministries and was the DukeEngage liaison for the Haiti program in 2009 and 2010. Due to the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, program staff and students were uncertain about the ability to work in Haiti during the summer. She was dedicated to supporting students who wanted to work in Haiti while simultaneously developing independent global health project options.
As DGHI staff members Lisa Croucher and Sarah Trent put it, “Sumi embodies and realizes the emphasis that Duke places on mentoring, student development, and student-faculty relationships. She does it quietly, consistently, and with great humility. Twenty years from now, when some of Sumi’s students are mentoring their own students, they will most certainly find themselves emulating Sumi’s compassionate, professional, and intelligent approach. She is the mentor that her students will someday aspire to be.”
Ariely is now an assistant professor of the practice at the Duke Global Health Institute and will continue to mentor students and support the DukeEngage Haiti project.
