Congratulations to Tina Chen, who has been awarded the 2021 Excellence in Mentorship Award from the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS).

Here is a brief excerpt that conveys the gist of the nomination letter’s argument:

Tina embodies the aspirations of this honor with regard to scope, impact, and legacy. To wit, Tina’s indefatigable mentorship of graduate students, tenure-line faculty, and non-tenure line faculty is firmly established and aspirational; this characterization of Tina is “common knowledge” at her home institution (Penn State) and beyond, as confirmed in the numerous testimonials included in this nomination letter. While much of this letter focuses on Tina’s impacts via one-on-one engagement, graduate seminar facilitation, and/or designated mentoring program (e.g., the AAAS Junior Faculty Pre-Conference Retreat, which is mentioned below), her investments in terms of mentorship are manifest in the important service she has done for the AAAS and Verge: Global Asias (as a member of the Association’s mentoring committee, as the sole chair for the site committee for the 2018 San Francisco conference, and as the founding editor of Verge). What further distinguishes Tina as model mentor is her ability to navigate multiple higher education terrains via a discernible and impressive transinstitutional praxis.