Gwendolyn Franklin needed some help. Her grades weren’t very good, and she was feeling overwhelmed by the overall college experience. During her junior year at Carnegie Mellon she says she hit rock bottom and landed in Gloria Hill’s office. At that moment, dropping out seemed a real possibility.
Franklin remembers well what happened next. “I found someone who was willing to sit in my pain with me,” she says. Under Hill’s guidance, she rebounded with an honor roll semester.
While Hill, the vice provost for education, acknowledges that she tries to “find ways to teach students how to harness their skills and abilities in order to meet the demands and expectations of a Carnegie Mellon education,” she downplays her impact with Franklin.
“Yes, I sat in Gwen’s pain, but only temporarily, just long enough to get her attention, empower her to see her own strength and potential, and to redirect her energy towards doing what I knew, without question, she could do—succeed at Carnegie Mellon.”
For that, Franklin (HS’95) says she will never forget her advisor. “This woman was the first in my life to nestle me in the warmth of unconditional acceptance, love, and encouragement.”
Hill, for her career of student advising and mentorship, recently won the national Educational Leadership Award at the 2008 Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference.
—Ellen Ayoob (A’98)
