ACS Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged Students into Careers in the Chemical Sciences: Saundra Y. McGuire

Sponsor: Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation

Citation: For her distinguished service encouraging underrepresented students to reach their full potential by teaching them metacognitive learning strategies and mentoring them to success.

Current position: retired assistant vice chancellor and professor of chemistry, and director emerita, Center for Academic Success, Louisiana State University

Education: B.S., chemistry, Southern University; M.A.T., chemistry, Cornell University; Ph.D., chemical education, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

McGuire on what she hopes to accomplish in the next decade: “I would love to help more people recognize that anyone can empower students to transform from ineffective, rote learners into profoundly curious, self-aware human beings who have expert strategies for acquiring the skills and knowledge they need in order to excel. Over the next decade, I would love to see a manifold increase in the number of faculty, and others, who know that anyone can teach students simple strategies that can immediately and dramatically improve academic performance.”

What her colleagues say: “As a teacher of organic chemistry courses, often the most dreaded by STEM students, I have observed the impact of professor McGuire’s mentoring on student motivation, performance, and achievements. After working with professor McGuire and applying her metacognitive learning strategies, the students become focused, stimulated, and excited about chemistry, which translates into effective learning and high grades in the courses. Notably, the students also become mentors themselves.”—Graça Vicente, Louisiana State University