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The Graduate School congratulates Dr. Lauren Auverset van Gerwen as a recipient of the 2024 Outstanding Master’s Mentor Award.

Dr. Auverset van Gerwen is an assistant professor of strategic communication in the Department of Communication whose research pinpoints the intersection of media effects and social psychology. She focuses on the effects that social media use and interactivity have on the way people communicate and consume media. 

Nominated by colleagues in her department who describe her as “a knowledgeable, passionate, compassionate, and approachable” faculty member, Dr. Auverset van Gerwen offers dedication and support while guiding graduate students through the academic journey. Her mentoring philosophy is centered on three core principles: (a) building a supportive and collegial atmosphere that nurtures individual creativity, (b) promoting intellectual and professional growth, and (c) embracing culture and diversity. By adhering to these core principles, she challenges herself to maintain clear expectations, transparent communication, accessibility, timely feedback, and mutual respect. This in turn, she believes, allows graduate students to set achievable goals and flourish. 

“Sometimes students need someone to believe that they are capable of achieving a goal before they are ready to push themselves into greatness,” she says. “Once that initial spark of curiosity has been lit, the flame of inspiration can burn brightly and lead the student into their future.”

Dr. Auverset van Gerwen’s commitment to the holistic growth of graduate students extends into her research lab, the Cypress Communication & Connective Media Lab (CCL). Launched in Spring 2023, this new connective media research lab has sparked enthusiastic interest from students. Graduate students involved with the lab have already co-authored research with Dr. Auverset van Gerwen, demonstrating her ability to engage students in collaborative research projects. This commitment to collaborative research also has led her to chair numerous master’s theses and to serve as a member of many more.

Dr. Auverset van Gerwen continually seeks feedback from students and colleagues, and she recognizes great value in a collaborative academic community. Echoing Albert Einstein’s sentiment, she believes that a university should be “a place where the universality of the human experience manifests itself.” 

Dr. Auverset van Gerwen is committed to building “a departmental culture where our graduate students can thrive.” From organizing various activities for graduate students including a biannual Thesis Boot Camp to a Graduate Student Brown Bag Research Seminar as well as graduate student-faculty mixers, she creates opportunities for her students to network, build new skills, and develop peer mentorship skills of their own.

Thank you, Dr. Auverset van Gerwen, for mentoring our graduate students with dedication to academic excellence and for creating a supportive and adaptive environment in your department for graduate students. Your ability to ignite that spark of curiosity in graduate students makes you a mentor whose impact is seen in and beyond the classroom. You are what defines excellence at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.