Congratulations to Kenny Harsch & Priscilla Faucette on receiving the 2019 Pakela Advising Award, awarded by the Council of Academic Advisors (CAA)! The following is quoted from the CAA website:
Pakela Award
Priscilla Faucette & Kenton (Kenny) Harsch are the Associate Director and Director, respectively, of the English Language Institute (ELI) and academic advisors for the undergraduate program in Second Language Studies (SLS). In these roles, Kenny and Priscilla provide advising and support for a myriad of students, from SLS majors to international students to graduate assistants who teach in the ELI and the SLS undergraduate program. In addition, they nurtured growth of the BA program in SLS, working with the department to develop and teach practicum and capstone courses for SLS majors. The capstone course includes students’ development of an e-portfolio, which several have credited with helping them secure a job after graduation. Kenny also spearheaded efforts to create a 5-year BA/MA pathway for majors who were interested in pursuing a graduate degree and worked with Kapi’olani Community College to draft a memorandum of understanding to facilitate articulation from KCC’s SLT program to the SLS program at Manoa. He also developed a new course to provide those transfer students with additional support once them came to Manoa. Priscilla has focused much of her efforts on providing support and resources for the ELI students and graduate assistants she advises and supervises, from coordinating workshops to compiling online resources to organizing social events to help students network. She has also developed resources for ELI instructors and departments to help them better understand and work with the international students that she and Kenny advise. It is no surprise that since its creation in 2011, the BA program in SLS has quickly grown to become the third-largest major in the College of Languages, Linguistics, & Literature.