The Department of Entomology would like to congratulate Ph.D. candidate Jennie Rhinesmith-Carranza for her hard work in advising students in the Department of Animal Science this year.
Rhinesmith-Carranza was awarded the Texas A&M University President’s Award for Academic Advising, which is the highest academic advising award offered universitywide.
Rhinesmith-Carranza has been pursuing a PhD in Dr. Tomberlin’s lab since 2017 and became a Ph.D. candidate in December 2019. Her dissertation research explores the inter- and intraspecific effects on carrion volatiles and attraction of two primary carrion colonizers, Nicrophorus vespilloides and Lucilia sericata.
In addition to her research, Rhinesmith-Carranza has worked as a full-time Academic Advisor since 2013 when she started advising for the College of Nursing at the Texas A&M Health Science Center. In 2015, Rhinesmith-Carranza started working as an undergraduate academic advisor with the Department of Animal Science.
As an advisor, Rhinesmith-Carranza advises more than 1,200 undergraduate students in Animal Sciences, as well as serves as the program coordinator for the Honors in Animal Science program. She also has served as a teaching assistant for ENTO 423, FIVS 431, and FIVS 432, and as an assistant lecturer for ENTO 482 and FIVS 482.
“I absolutely love working with undergraduate students, whether it is via academic advising or by teaching in the classroom,” she said.
Rhinesmith-Carranza was very honored to receive the award.
“It was such an honor to be selected for the President’s Award – I consider myself immensely lucky to come to a job I love, with people I love, to do something I love every day!” she said. “I find working with students in all capacities very meaningful and fulfilling, and it is a sweet sentiment just to have been nominated by my students and peers.”