Friday, May 3, 2019
STARKVILLE, Miss – Dr. Kasia Gallo, an instructor in the Department of Counseling Educational Psychology and Foundations, was recently awarded the Wesley A. Ammon New Academic Advisor Award.
“The College of Education is excited that the quality advising provided by Kasia has been recognized. Her service to our student has always been exemplary,” said Dr. Richard Blackbourn, Dean of the College of Education.
Gallo, who has been an instructor and advisor in the department since 2015, said that she was very humbled by former department head Dr. Morse’s nomination for the award. Over the past four years, Gallo has advised hundreds of undergraduates, guiding them through their college careers and beyond. She explained that once someone becomes her student, they are always her student.
How Dr. Gallo ended up advising for the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Foundations might come as a surprise to many. She received a bachelor of architecture and a master of landscape architecture degrees, then practiced professionally as an architectural designer before realizing her passion laid elsewhere. While co-teaching with another faculty member in the MSU’s landscape architecture department, a colleague noticed that she had a deep interest in best ways to teach the content. This faculty member mentioned that Mississippi State had a degree that concentrated on such issues - educational psychology.
Dr. Gallo explained that her switch in careers has helped a lot in advising because she often deals with students who are worried about choosing the wrong major and eventually the wrong profession. She likes to point out to her students that landscape architecture and educational psychology are two totally different fields, yet she was able to make the switch, and feels her “previous life” often comes to play in her current position. Dr. Gallo wants her students to always know there are options related to finding enriching opportunities on campus and future careers that suit them.
“One of my favorite things about advising is helping students remove barriers. Often students know what they want to do, but they have no idea how to go about doing it. My job as an advisor is to help guide them through these processes, whether it’s wanting to do more research while in school or finding a future career that integrates their love of science with their love of counseling.”
The Wesley A. Ammon New Academic Advisor Awards recognize both a faculty and staff member who have demonstrated qualities associated with outstanding academic advising of undergraduate students and who have served as academic advisors for less than five years.
Gallo received her bachelor and master degrees from Louisiana State University in 1997 and 2000 as well as a second master’s and a Ph.D. from Mississippi State in 2015 and 2018.
The award is a memorial to Ammon, who served as director of MSU’s University Academic Advising Center until his death in 2016. Ammon joined the University Academic Advising Center in 1995 and was promoted to assistant director before taking on the director’s role in 2009. A Vicksburg native who earned a bachelor’s in political science and a master’s in public policy and administration from MSU in 1985 and 1988, respectively, Ammon regularly lectured to classrooms with more than 100 students. He was an avid Bulldog sports fan and a member of Calvary Baptist Church.
Established in 1903, MSU’s College of Education is now home to six academic departments, one research unit and numerous service units. For more about the college, visit //www.educ.msstate.edu/.
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.
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