Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Masters Students

The Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Master’s Students Award is presented each Spring at the May Doctoral Hooding and Commencement Ceremony.  This award honors one-on-one mentoring of master’s students through the direction of a thesis, supervision of a student’s research and creative activity, and/or oversight of a student’s internship, exhibition, or final professional paper.  All members of the graduate faculty who mentor students to the completion of the degree are eligible to be nominated by their chair, colleagues, or graduate students.

Professor Ying Kit Chan is currently a Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Studio Art in the Department of Art and Design.  He teaches and advises students at the undergraduate and graduate levels.  As an artist, Professor Chan has continued to produce new works and has exhibited in over 200 solo and group exhibitions in the United States as well as in Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, Ecuador, Colombia, Germany, Korea, Japan, England, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Portugal.  Professor Chan has received important public awards and fellowships, including two Kentucky Arts Council Al Smith Visual Arts Fellowships (1994 and 2002) and a National Endowment for the Arts/Southern Arts Federation Visual Arts Fellowship (1992). 

Professor Chan was born and raised in Hong Kong where he practiced as an artist and received the Urban Council Art Award at the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial (1977).  In 1979, he came to America to further his studies. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Oklahoma, and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Cincinnati.  Before coming to the University of Louisville as an assistant professor in 1984, he was a visiting assistant professor of art at West Virginia University. 

Several students nominated Professor Chan, each of whom emphasized that he is a mentor who invests in his students’ careers and in them as people.  One writes, “As my mentor, Professor Chan has been helping me to refine my teaching philosophy and curriculum vitae (CV) to prepare for the job market.  I feel that I am very prepared for the world beyond graduate school because of Professor Chan’s lifelong experience and knowledge as a committed arts educator.  He has worked very hard to create a supportive, inclusive, and resource-rich learning experience for all students in the University of Louisville’s MFA program.”  Another graduate of the MFA program offers this praise: “He is a professor who goes above and beyond as an educator to consistently show up for his students. Those are the professors that students remember.  Those are the professors who make a difference.” Professor Chan has mentored dozens of bachelor’s students and almost three-dozen MA and MFA students in his career at UofL, and is well-deserving of this award for outstanding mentorship of master’s students.