-Magdalen Lindeberg

The School of Integrative Plant Science is pleased to announce that Tetiana-Olena ‘Olenka’ Zavodna, PhD student in the Field of Soil & Crop Sciences, has been awarded the Sellew Family Excellence-in-Mentoring Fellowship for 2021.  Zavodna works in the program of Olena Vatamaniuk, investigating how wheat uptakes copper, a micronutrient required for fertility and yield. Her undergraduate mentees cite her enthusiasm for science and her warm and patient personality.

The Sellew Family Excellence-in-Mentoring Fellowship is supported by a current use fund of $50,000 from Mark ‘78 and Lisa ‘79 Sellew and was created to highlight the valuable role that graduate students play in contributing to the educational experience of Cornell undergraduates.

One of Zavodna’s current mentees, Plant Sciences Major Erica Kirchhof, reflected on Olenka’s special talent for explaining both the what and why of scientific experiments. “I came into the Vatamaniuk Lab with very little prior experience, so I needed a mentor that would help me navigate various procedures while also being patient as I learned new techniques. Olenka not only provided this, but she also made me feel more at ease and more confident with what I was doing.” Iryna Dovirak, a mentee and 2020 graduate recalled, “There were countless nights she would stay overtime to teach me new techniques, celebrate my growth, or simply share her excitement for discoveries in the lab.”

The Sellew Family Excellence-in-Mentoring Fellowship is awarded to a student in a different SIPS graduate field for each of five years. Grant Thompson in the SIPS Horticulture Section, Mike Fulcher in the SIPS Plant Pathology & Plant-Microbe Biology Section, and Mia Howard in the SIPS Plant Biology Section were award recipients for 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020 respectively. This year’s fellowship term shifted from Fall-Spring to Spring-Fall owing to COVID-related disruptions. Next year, an awardee will be selected from the Field of Plant Breeding & Genetics.