Mirna Becevic and Yong Volz
June 8, 2021
Mirna Becevic and Yong Volz recently received the Ann K. Covington Award from the University of Missouri Fellowships Office. The award recognizes members of the university faculty or staff who have mentored an undergraduate applicant for at least one nationally competitive fellowship. Students who applied for nationally competitive scholarships in the past year were able to nominate a mentor for this award.
Becevic, an assistant research professor of telemedicine in the MU School of Medicine and lead evaluator for the Show-Me ECHO project, was nominated by engineering student Rebecca Shyu. “In the past three years, my research skill set and collaboration efforts have grown exponentially due to Dr. Becevic’s mentorship,” Shyu wrote in her nomination letter. “Her perfect balance of allowing me independence while guiding skillfully forced me to be creative and problem-solve.”
Volz, the Roger Gafke Faculty Fellow at the Missouri School of Journalism and chair of the Journalism Studies faculty, was nominated by journalism student Alice Yu. “From our first meeting to discuss my academic, professional, and research interest up until now, Dr. Volz has served as a mentor, guide, professor, sounding board and a cheerleader for my dreams and ambitions,” Yu writes in her nomination letter. “Dr. Volz inspires me with the care she shows to those around her, and her office in Neff Hall has become a safe haven. Her presence in the J-School is an affirmation that I, too, belong.”
Covington, the award’s namesake, is a former member of the University of Missouri Board of Curators, a former Missouri Supreme Court chief justice, the first woman to serve on the state’s Supreme Court and a longtime champion of the University of Missouri.
