Vet and Biomedical Sciences adviser receives 2015 Academic Advising Award

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Nüket Acar, advising coordinator and undergraduate adviser in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, is the recipient of this year's Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences Excellence in Academic Advising Award. Sponsored by the College of Agricultural Sciences Alumni Society, the award recognizes faculty members and staff for overall effectiveness in student advising, personal counseling, and individual student goal-setting and career planning. Candidates are recommended by faculty, students, administrators and alumni. Over the last decade, Acar has advised hundreds of students, primarily in the Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences undergraduate major, but also in the Toxicology and in the Immunology and Infectious Disease majors. She also is a volunteer adviser to the 125-member, nationally recognized Penn State Pre-Vet Club. Acar provides professional and graduate school admission application reviews for students and has written more than 60 veterinary school recommendations. In the last three years alone, 22 of her advisees have been accepted into professional veterinary medical programs. She also serves as the primary departmental contact for new student orientation and travels to many other Penn State campuses to meet with students interested in the majors offered by the department. In addition, she has taught undergraduate courses, participated in numerous recruitment and outreach activities, and published 21 manuscripts in refereed journals. Since 1999, she has served as associate editor of the Journal of Poultry Science. Acar received a D.V.M. degree from the veterinary school at Ankara University, Turkey. She taught animal nutrition for third-year veterinary students at İstanbul University in Turkey before earning a master's degree in avian sciences from the University of California, Davis, and a doctorate in poultry nutrition with a minor in statistics from Auburn University. After two years as a research associate in the Animal Science Department at the University of Hawaii, she came to Penn State as a postdoctoral researcher in poultry science in 1993. She also served Penn State as a postdoctoral scholar in biobehavorial health, research associate in poultry science, and director of the Women in the Sciences and Engineering Institute before joining the Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences faculty in 2006. "Nüket Acar's advising is one of the bedrock components of the success of our department's undergraduate program," Val Beasley, professor and head of the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, said in nominating her for the award. "She is an academic adviser of great distinction with consistent 'above-and­ beyond' accomplishments. She is an extraordinary model of excellence in academic advising at Penn State -- a university deservedly known for its strength in this vital area." Advisee Deanna Trearchis, a recent graduate of the college, said Acar made her four years of college an incredibly positive experience. "She leveraged her knowledge and experience in the field of veterinary medicine, helping me through many difficult situations and guiding me in the right direction," she explained. "Her willingness to be available, her openness and understanding in times of stress, and her passion for veterinary medicine and Penn State was demonstrated each time I met with her. She has become my mentor, and because of her guidance and expertise, I know I will be prepared and ready for veterinary school and the roads that lie ahead." Former advisee Emily Glunk, now an assistant professor and extension forage specialist at Montana State University, called Acar "a phenomenal adviser" who always was concerned with all of her students, both academically and personally. "I always enjoyed my chats with Dr. Acar, which usually started with talk about school and classes, but always ended with talk about family, personal goals and ideas about my future," Glunk recalled. "We all knew that she was personally invested in each of our individual successes. Now that I am responsible for advising undergraduates, I have taken a lot of my experience with Dr. Acar and tried to mimic that in my advising style. I have not met another adviser that is more caring, knowledgeable and hard-working than she is."