Bryan Hotchkins, a doctorate student in educational leadership and policy, received one of two ASUU Faculty Choice Awards this year and will be honored at a dinner ceremony being held March 21.
Bryce Williams, director of academic affairs for ASUU, said Hotchkins was selected for the award based on the work he is doing at the U.
“Bryan is focusing on his thesis but is also trying to contribute to campus,” Williams said. “He goes to conferences about discrimination issues and brings that knowledge back to campus. He does trainings and dialogues with student leaders and housing leaders on social issues. All four years he’s been here, I’ve seen Bryan doing this type of work.”
Hotchkins is involved with the Association Study of Higher Ed and the American Educational Research Association, and has presented at both of their conferences since 2010. He held a conference at the U, which attracted a crowd of more than 60 people.
Along with his involvement in ASHE and AERA, Hotchkins has been a teacher’s assistant, a research assistant for two professors and a graduate assistant.
Hotchkins said he works about 20 hours a week on his dissertation for his doctorate program. So far, his dissertation is 215 pages, and he thinks he will add another 20 pages before he finishes.
“My research agenda primarily is dealing with leadership,” Hotchkins said. “How leaders are created, how students are exposed to leadership prior to college, how leadership identity development takes place, all intersected with race.”
All of Hotchkins’ work is for a cause. He wants to prove all of his work is meaningful.
“If you don’t do something to help the people in your research, you are just exploiting the research,” he said. “You didn’t give anything back, and I want to be able to give back.”
Upon graduation, Hotchkins will begin a post-doctoral position at the U. He will be teaching a social justice leadership and policy and public administration class during both the Summer Semester and the next Spring Semester. He said he will also be starting a program called Black Boys Lead at West High School.
“I want this program to be a cultural and leadership bridge between African and African-American boys,” he said.
Hotchkins plans to hold after-school activities for these boys and bring them to the U twice a month.
“This is one of the ways to take what I’ve been given and give the opportunity to expose these boys to what college is like and what campus is like,” he said. “By bringing them to campus, I want them to be able to say, ‘I can go to the University of Utah.’ A lot of times, you don’t know what you can become until you see someone who is like you who has done it.”