Sepideh Alavi and Natalie Larez from the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology were chosen for two of the four 2023 Carol Genetti Mentoring Awards. The Carol Genetti Graduate Mentoring Award is available to students in the Humanities and Fine Arts and Social Sciences Divisions of the College of Letters and Science and the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education. These students are recognized for their excellence in and contributions to undergraduate research supervision and for encouraging others to become involved in these research efforts. Each of the winning students receives a $1000 award.
Sepideh M. Alavi is a doctoral candidate in the Clinical Psychology emphasis working with Dr. Maryam Kia-Keating. Her scholarship is on the impact of compassion fatigue, secondary and vicarious trauma, and burnout in health and mental health care providers responding to trauma, and organizational strategies to improve resilience.
“This award is very meaningful to me, personally,” Alavi says. “In part, working with highly motivated students who are eager to learn and go the extra mile to reach their goals, reminds me of my 18-year-old self who had just arrived in America after completing high school abroad, and attempting to navigate higher education in the U.S. My mentors have a significant role in my success and I am grateful to be able to give back to students and mentees as they strive to find their pursuits.”
Natalie Larez is a doctoral student working under Dr. Jill Sharkey in the School Psychology emphasis. Her research is focused on community-based work with adolescents in school and community settings. Clinically, she has worked in schools, the university-based clinic with families, and an inpatient psychiatry and addiction medicine unit with adults. Larez’s current research interests are focused on improving mental health and substance use prevention efforts for low-income, Spanish-speaking, and marginalized communities. Her goal is to use her research skills and return to Arizona and build a research program that focuses on border health and education.
“Winning this award means has meant that I am able to continue building my career towards being the mentor that is able to continue advocating for better systems to support the career development of minoritized students in research and graduate school,” Larez says. “It also means that I am able to honor all my mentors that have contributed to my trajectory. My mentors range from family members who have had limited education but taught me core components of mentorship (e.g., encouragement, warmth, care, and steady companionship towards goals) to academic mentors who have shared academic logistics (e.g., writing grants, research skills) that was instrumental in supporting my graduate career. I am truly grateful to have received this recognition and will continue to build a skillset that equitably serves the students I mentor in the future.”
