COS Advisors Receive National Recognition

NACADA, a globally recognized academic advising professional organization, honored Karen Cox of the  department of psychology and Rebecca Morales of the Nicholson School of Communication as  recipients of their Region 4 Outstanding Advising Award. Cox and Morales were honored at the NACADA Region 4 conference in April hosted by Auburn University.

Karen Cox

Cox accepted the award in the category of “Academic Advising – Advising Program” on behalf of the UCF Psychology Advising Center.  The Psychology Peer Advising Internsip won for Outstanding Award Program and received a Certificate of Merit at the national level.

Rebecca Morales

Morales accepted the award for “Academic Advising – Primary Role” and also was a recipient of the national level award in the same category.

According the NACADA website, recipients are selected based on over seventeen criteria including strong interpersonal skills, frequency of contact with advisees, evidence of student success rate, and the ability to engage in, promote, and support developmental advising.

NACADA will honor this year’s institutions and individual national-level recipients who have made “significant contributions to the improvement of academic advising” at the 2015 NACADA Annual Conference being held on October 4-7, 2015 in Las Vegas, NV.

“Rebecca Morales goes way beyond her job title of adviser. She is a problem solver, a partner with faculty, a recruiter of academic programs, and a shoulder to cry on when you need support for student conflict situations,” remarked Joan McCain, instructor and area coordinator for the AD-PR program in the Nicholson School of Communication, after learning of the NACADA announcement.

Morales, who was also recently presented with UCF’s Excellence in Professional Advising Award, commented, “It’s an honor to be recognized for work that I absolutely love to do.”