USC Honors Gould Professor

 Prof. Garry one of 25 USC faculty members recognized for outstanding dedication to mentoring -By Jared Servantez Professor Hannah Garry was recently honored with a USC Mellon Mentoring Award for her extraordinary dedication to her students and colleagues at USC Gould School of Law. The award, in the Faculty Mentoring Graduate Students category, honors individual faculty for helping to build a supportive academic environment at USC through faculty-to-student mentoring.

Professor Garry was honored with a USC Mellon Mentoring Award. Photo by: Steve Cohn Photography

“The depth of relationship built with students through the mentoring process is unparalleled,” said Garry, who is director of USC Gould's International Human Rights Clinic. “I remind my students and they remind me that we are not alone. Rather, we are together in community – interconnected and supporting each other as we seek to become the best that we can be.” Garry was one of 25 university-wide faculty members selected to receive the USC Mellon Mentoring Award out of nearly 200 nominees. She is also the fourth faculty member at USC Gould to receive the award. Previous recipients were Scott Altman, Thomas Lyon and Ariela Gross. Five of Garry's students, led by Kelsey McGregor '15, officially nominated her for the award, but nearly 20 other students from the International Human Rights Clinic collaborated on the nomination letters. When the nomination process began, McGregor reached out to many of Garry's former clinic students to participate in the process. Within a day, she had a mountain of replies. “Seeing as Professor Garry had only worked at USC for about four years, instructing an annual clinic class of eight students, this was an incredible outpouring for just a quick email to a few students who spread the word,” McGregor said. With so many students wanting to share their support for Garry's nomination, McGregor had to split the group into several smaller teams to work on the nomination letters. “Professor Garry created a unique academic environment where students strived to excel, not for the sake of their grade point averages, but because she instills a passion for learning in everyone she meets,” Garry's students wrote in one of the nomination letters. McGregor said even before she had decided to attend USC Gould, Garry took the time to speak with her on the phone about opportunities at the school and in the International Human Rights Clinic. “I came into her clinic eager to learn, and she shaped me into an actual researcher, writer, and advocate,” McGregor said. “While I still have plenty of room for growth, I feel well prepared to enter the job market, and I am incredibly grateful to her for the many practical learning opportunities I’ve had, both in the clinic and through her external support.” “I truly could not have hoped for a more wonderful and impactful mentor,” she added. Mellon Mentoring Awards have been given out annually since 2005, and since 2008 USC has partnered with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to integrate mentoring practices throughout the university. Garry was recently promoted to Clinical Professor of Law and is the founding director of USC Law's International Human Rights Clinic. She specializes in international human rights law, international criminal law, international humanitarian law and international refugee law. “I mentor because I want for our law students to develop a life-long practice of using their degree to 'do good,' and to do it with excellence,” she said. “To consistently seek justice on behalf of those who have none, and in so doing, make the world a better place.”