UTRGV Psychological Science Professor Grant Benham has won the Florence L. Denmark Faculty Advisor Award from the Psi Chi International Honor Society.
The Florence L. Denmark award is named after the influential psychologist and former president of the American Psychological Association. It comes with a $1,000 award for Benham, $500 for the chapter and recognition for the university.
Benham describes Psi Chi as an “international honor society for students; however, it is mostly based in the United States.”
The recipient of this award needs to fulfill Psi Chi’s purpose of being actively engaged in the scholarships of a chapter’s members to the best of their abilities.
“You just gotta figure out what your role as an adviser is,” Benham said when asked what his purpose was. “We’ve been doing this for over 15 years now at UTRGV, and previously UTPA. So historically, I’ve been able to learn a lot of what works and what doesn’t work. That helped me guide students a bit better since I learned more from them and their experiences. I also try to get them actively involved in things that are maybe a little bit out of the norm; things that they can remember. They look back on and feel like they were a part of.”
In addition to winning the award on May 22, Benham has also won the Faculty Advisor Award twice at UTPA in 2010 and UTRGV in April 2017.
He credits his achievements to three things: his seniority within Psi Chi, the efforts from the organization’s students and his community engagement projects.
Projects include Brain Day and the Stress Management event, which gives opportunities to students to break out of traditional classroom learning experiences.
The current and former presidents of the UTRGV Psi Chi organization are Abigail Nunez-Saenz and Andy Torres.
“I think [to win this award] reflects the collective work from everyone in support of it,” said Andy Torres, who was Psi Chi president when the award was given. “My role as president was to give some sort of sense of direction. We are representing the university in winning this award.”
Asked what advice he would give other student organizations, Torres said, “The biggest advice I could give is to not be afraid of actually putting yourself out there. Don’t be afraid of failure, because I think that’s one of the components that stops students the most.”
He said Benham was significant in the success of the chapter.
“It would be a Friday evening and everyone’s leaving, but he would stay behind and help us prep for big events such as Brain Day,” Torres said. “He was always there with us and he led by example.”
Current Psi Chi President Abigail Nunez-Saenz said she has big shoes to fill.
“We’re going to work really hard this coming semester and this coming year to make sure we are on par with the previous year,” Nunez-Saenz said.
For more information, email abigail.nunezsaenz01@utrgv.edu.
