Matthew Harrigan Recognized by the College of Arts and Sciences
John B. Drahmann Advising Award
In recognition of having established among colleagues and students a well-deserved reputation for extraordinary dedication to student welfare through wise, informed, effective, and caring counsel, and having demonstrated the ability to motivate other teachers and learners.
Matt Harrigan has been the Associate Director of the Office of Student Fellowships (OSF) since the summer of 2020, and served as interim director in 2022-23. In OSF, he has advised hundreds of hopeful applicants to programs like Fulbright, Truman, and Knight-Hennessy, to name a few. He holds applicants' hands throughout the application process and also holds their feet to the fire so that they meet their deadlines.
Many students seek out Matt’s guidance multiple times, as they move through the process from exploring their motivations to the finer details, like sifting through line edits on drafts of their application materials. And although students laud his contributions to their successes, he also excels at convincing them that the self-exploration of the fellowship application process is as valuable as actually winning an award.
Matt regularly puts in a tremendous amount of work on the back end, whether it’s updating the OSF website or the Fulbright Camino Community, sending recruitment emails, or obsessively checking the application portals for updates. He is also the Director of Pre-Law Advising. In that role, he meets with students who are interested in law school, maintains close relationships with alumni working in the legal field, and arranges networking events. He is a valuable and beloved mentor and advisor for our students.
As one colleague notes, “Matt is a terrific advisor, and I have become a better one because I have worked closely with him.”
The College and the University owe a big thank you to Matthew Harrigan for his unwavering support of our students.