Jodi Finkel, professor of political science at Loyola Marymount University, has been honored with the 2016 Adalijza Sosa-Riddell Mentoring Award from the American Political Science Association.
This award, selected by the Committee on the Status of Latinos y Latinas in the Profession, honors “exceptional mentoring of Latino/a students and junior faculty” in political science. The Award is named for Adaljiza Sosa-Riddell, the first Latina to earn a doctorate in political science and a life-long mentor of Latinos/as.
Finkel has a reputation on campus as a demanding and supportive professor. She works with students one-on-one outside of class to improve their writing, coaches them on research and internship opportunities, and helps them make post-graduate plans. She is a previous winner of the President’s Fritz B. Burns Distinguished Teaching Award, LMU’s most prestigious teaching honor.
“Jodi raises her students’ expectations above their own,” said Jennifer Ramos, associate chair of political science at LMU. “Then, through solid academic preparation and long-term mentoring, she ensures that her students can achieve their dreams.”
Finkel has also served as founding faculty advisor to both the Latino Pre-Law Association and the Undocumented Students Club.
In 2005, Finkel founded MuJER, a literacy program for sex workers in Guatemala. Even this has served as an ongoing opportunity for student mentorship; she worked with two of her students at the time to help start the organization, and has continued to create meaningful internship opportunities for students there.
Finkel received the award Friday, Sept. 2, at the American Political Science Association’s Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.