Congratulations to Ashley Wells, Recipient of the English Faculty Mentoring Award

Senior Lecturer Ashley Wells is one of the two recipients of the 2026 English Faculty Mentoring Award. Our English Faculty Mentoring Award was established by generous donors who themselves benefited from the encouragement of supportive faculty at pivotal moments of their undergraduate careers. This $2,500 award recognizes English Department faculty who have gone above and beyond in mentoring students.

Former students have described Ashley as being “an invaluable mentor.” One said, “She has forever changed the way I've approached not only my writing, but also my reading, challenging me and pushing me to dive deeper into a topic and exploring the possibilities of writing about that topic.” Ashley strives to help her students grow however they can and as much as possible.

Because of her dedication to the craft of writing, she has helped foster a strong writing community at USU. "I see myself as a resource to my creative writing students and have crafted materials on professional practice and on life after their undergraduate studies,” Ashley says. “My goal is to guide students toward high-impact practices that help them in their careers beyond USU.”

As a first-generation college student herself, Ashley understands the importance of having a good mentor when navigating academia. “For this reason,” she says, “I see mentorship as a responsibility.” Since starting at USU in 2020, Ashley has been actively involved in mentoring students through Aggie First Scholars (AFS), a program dedicated to helping first-generation college students at USU. Through AFS, she’s mentored students and faculty, spoken on panels, created curriculum, and helped organize career networking events.

This work with AFS led to work with USU’s Supplemental Instruction (SI) program. In 2022, when the program began offering support services to English 1010 and 2010 students, Ashley helped four student leaders develop skills in teaching, pedagogy, and lesson planning. Ashley helped these leaders at the start of the new pilot program during an administrative change in the middle of an academic year. By focusing on the students’ individual goals, Ashley crafted their experiences to be as fruitful as possible. Charity Maeda Van den Akker explains, “Because of how she managed these situations, many of the SI Leaders mentored by her are now in higher levels of leadership throughout the program.”

On top of her active mentorship through programs like AFS and SI, Ashley has helped students achieve their goals on an individual level. For example, in 2024 she served as faculty mentor to Chloe Scheve, helping her develop a proposal to present at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. Chloe’s proposal was accepted and she represented the USU English Department at a national conference as a result. Ashley strives to help students, however she can, whether that means connecting students to other mentors best suited to help them grow or connecting them to professional opportunities. She has helped her students get involved with the Writing Fellows program, the Writing Center, Connections peer mentorship positions, the Emerging Scholars Conference, and beyond.

Additionally, Ashley has mentored seven students in Student Writer positions as Chair of the English Department’s Website Content Committee. Ashley also serves as Poetry Faculty Advisor and Creative Writing and Art Contest Director for Sink Hollow literary magazine, guiding students through a range of literary professional development opportunities.

“My own mentors have been so vitally important to my education and career,” Ashley reflects. “I am honored to be recognized for paying that forward.”

The English Department is deeply grateful to the donors who have made this award possible and to all the many friends and alumni who encourage the wonderful work of our faculty and students.