{"id":5502,"date":"2020-08-10T14:14:47","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T21:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/?p=5502"},"modified":"2023-05-23T13:52:32","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T20:52:32","slug":"sam-logan-named-2020-margaret-and-thomas-meehan-eminent-mentor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/2020\/08\/10\/sam-logan-named-2020-margaret-and-thomas-meehan-eminent-mentor\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Logan Named 2020 Margaret and Thomas Meehan Eminent Mentor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Honors College is pleased to announce the selection of College of Public Health and Human Sciences Associate Professor Sam Logan as the 2020 Margaret and Thomas Meehan Honors College Eminent Mentor. Each year, one faculty member is selected for this recognition by a panel of distinguished honors faculty and mentors from a pool of undergraduate research mentors nominated by students and recent alumni. A list of previous Eminent Mentors is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a great honor and privilege to receive the 2020 Margaret and Thomas Meehan Honors College Eminent Mentor award,\u201d Sam says. \u201cI urge everyone to take a minute out of their day and learn more about the Meehans. They were dedicated faculty members at OSU and left a lasting legacy on the university, the Honors College and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margaret and Thomas Meehan came to Oregon State University (then Oregon State College) in 1962. Thomas worked as a professor in the Department of History until his retirement in 1987; Margaret worked in the OSU Library before later joining Thomas in the Department of History. Thomas was much loved for his dedication to teaching and mentorship of undergraduate students, often earning recognition across campus for his efforts. After helping to establish the University Honors Program \u2014 a predecessor to today\u2019s Honors College \u2014 Margaret served as its director from 1974 until her retirement in 1986.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam came to Oregon State in 2014 after receiving his Ph.D. in Kinesiology from Auburn University and completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Delaware. His research focuses on the health and wellbeing of typically developing children and children with disabilities, as well as the role of independent mobility in healthy pediatric development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Sam serves as the Director of the Social Mobility Lab & PlayTech Workshop at Oregon State. The Social Mobility Lab<\/a> investigates the design, prototyping and testing of toy-based technologies, with particular emphasis in designing modified ride-on toy cars and providing them to children with disabilities to encourage independent mobility and healthy development.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Sam works with undergraduate students to modify a ride-on car<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cDuring my first term at Oregon State University in the fall of 2015, I began volunteering in Dr. Sam Logan\u2019s Social Mobility Lab,\u201d says Jenna Fitzgerald, the recent honors alum who nominated Sam. \u201cOver the rest of my undergraduate educational career at OSU, I remained committed to this lab due to both the passion I developed for research with children with disabilities and Dr. Logan\u2019s mentorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Logan\u2019s mentoring style facilitates effective independent learning and problem solving, yet he is always eager to answer questions and provide more direct guidance if necessary,\u201d Jenna says. \u201cThroughout my experience, this approach helped me to develop independence in the lab, all the while knowing that I could turn to Dr. Logan when I faced a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honors students have a unique opportunity to explore and participate in Sam\u2019s research and outreach work by taking Toy-Based Technology for Children with Disabilities<\/a>, a hands-on colloquium class that Sam teaches in the Honors College nearly every term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often, students that take Toy-Based Technology for Children with Disabilities find themselves interested in the field and stay on in the lab after their term in the class is over. Many of these students find a home on campus \u2014 and a lifelong mentor \u2014 at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was part of a team that received a grant to conduct summer research on designing and testing a toy-based mobility device for young children with disabilities,\u201d Sam explains. \u201cA first-year OSU student in the course, Thomas Weathers, expressed interest in becoming involved in the project. Thomas\u2019 experience turned into a thesis, as well as continued mentorship over the next few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe continue to work together on projects, and I\u2019m confident in saying that this will be a lifelong mentor\/mentee relationship,\u201d Sam says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to his colloquium, Sam further supports the honors experience by serving as a frequent thesis mentor. He has already mentored eight different students; a significant accomplishment made even more impressive by the fact that his first mentee defended their thesis in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUndergraduates gain a lot of valuable real-world experience from completing an honors thesis,\u201d Sam says. \u201cThe thesis process really encourages students to develop new skills, including to critically read research literature, understand and analyze data and strengthen writing abilities. In addition, the thesis process places an emphasis on taking ownership of your work and develops students\u2019 ability to work independently, while also understanding that it\u2019s okay to ask for help. These are all skills that will translate and be useful for students in their future careers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam\u2019s students and mentees grow though both academic involvement and personal support. Students leave empowered to pursue whatever\u2019s next, ready to use the skills and experiences given to them by their time in the lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy philosophy includes providing undergraduates with opportunities to dig into the research process and learn by doing,\u201d Sam explains. \u201cI provide guidance, but I also believe that the most learning comes from critical thinking and problem solving.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Sam is] committed to supporting and guiding student researchers throughout their experience at OSU and beyond,\u201d Jenna says. \u201cPersonally, Dr. Logan\u2019s influence has continued to benefit me as a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am immensely grateful for my experience in the Social Mobility Lab and for the relationship that I built with Dr. Logan, who continues to be a mentor to me today, even a year after I have graduated from OSU,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students from Sam\u2019s lab have gone on to numerous graduate school and professional opportunities, each having gained something from his mentorship. At the same time, Sam feels as though he\u2019s learned from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a fantastic experience with mentoring undergraduates through the thesis process and teaching a colloquium in the Honors College,\u201d Sam says. \u201cI\u2019d like to thank all of the students who have worked with me in the past who contributed to receiving this recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Christopher McCracken: Media Assistant, Honors College<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Honors College is pleased to announce the selection of College of Public Health and Human Sciences Associate Professor Sam Logan as the 2020 Margaret and Thomas Meehan Honors College Eminent Mentor. Each year, one faculty member is selected for this recognition by a panel of distinguished honors faculty and mentors from a pool of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9319,"featured_media":7438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1205,1163399,82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-courses-faculty","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9319"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5502"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8677,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5502\/revisions\/8677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}