Roger Baldwin to Receive 2017 ASHE Mentoring Award

Professor Emeritus Roger Baldwin was honored with the 2017 Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Mentoring Award in November at the organization’s annual conference.

The award celebrates those who have made significant and noteworthy contributions in mentoring developing scholars within ASHE and higher education. Baldwin is only the ninth recipient since the award was established in 2009.

Baldwin, who retired from Michigan State University after 16 years of service in August 2017, has made mentoring young researchers a key component of his career. He served as the Dr. Mildred B. Erickson Distinguished Chair in Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education, through which he created new student internships and assistantships to help expand the student experience.

In fact, throughout his entire career at MSU, Baldwin has exhibited an ability and interest in connecting with all students.

“Even as a senior scholar, he connects with the 22-year-old new professional and the 60-year-old established returning adult learner one-on-one in the classroom and in their research,” said Department of Educational Administration Chairperson Marilyn Amey. She received the inaugural ASHE Mentoring Award in 2009. “He has an innate ability to meet students where they are and help them move to where they, and we, want them to be by course and program end.”

In addition to Amey’s own letter of recommendation, 12 current and former students nominated Baldwin for the impact he has had on their lives, and their careers.

“He’s the reason I wanted to pursue a faculty career,” said David Nguyen, Ph.D. ’16 (Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education), who led the nomination effort. Baldwin was Nguyen’s academic advisor. “He cares so much for and about people, regardless of whether he works directly with them. He does not want to mold students in the way he would like them to be; instead, he takes a customized approach.”

Baldwin mentored Nguyen in teaching, and offered him a co-teaching opportunity to test out teaching approaches. Nguyen is now an assistant professor of higher education and student affairs at Ohio University.

“In every way, he has made a difference in the lives of students in his more than 40-year career,” added Amey. “His impact on the field through the students he has mentored and educated is beyond mere statistics, and will be felt even after his retirement, in the ways which these cohorts of students live out the values of mentoring and educating he inspired in them.

“Roger Baldwin is the kind of educator and mentor about whom we say, with the greatest respect and affection: ‘They don’t make them like this anymore.'”

During his career, Baldwin has been highly involved with ASHE, serving as an elected member on the Board of Trustees and on various committees. He was officially recognized with the award during ASHE’s annual conference from Nov. 9-11 in Houston, Texas.