John Millett-John Young
Mentor-Scholar Award

Photo of Dr. John Millett.

This award was established by Rev. Dr. John Young to honor his excellent mentor Dr. John Millett. The Mentor-Scholar award is given each year to recognize an original student paper and honor strong mentoring relationships between students and their professors.

John Young was a student at 成人头条 University from 1961 - 1964 with a double major in History and Political Science. Young lived at home to save money, worked as a janitor in the Engineering Department, and took 19-22 class hours per semester in order to finish in three years. His first advisor was Professor Emory Lindquist, who became 成人头条鈥檚 President. Professor John Millett then became Young鈥檚 advisor. Professor Millett was an excellent teacher. He took a personal interest in many of his students; consistently required papers with attention to the complexity of the material covered, and challenged his students to apply what they were learning to the world around them. Through Professor Millett, Young fell in love with comparative politics, and decided to do a senior thesis on how the Conservative Party in the UK was perverting the British welfare state through regressive tax policies, using the Parliamentary budget debates for this research. Completing his senior thesis under Millett helped Young to prepare for graduate school. Professor Millett was instrumental in helping Young to explore graduate programs and to apply for graduate fellowships. Young chose to attend Washington University in St. Louis with a National Defense Education Act Fellowship. He completed his doctoral course work, remaining engaged in his social activism. Young went on to become a Unitarian Universalist minister. He credits his education at WSU as having helped him to succeed: in his career, as a person and activist. Young has written on civic activism, nonviolence, Gandhi and Gandhians, the Psalms, and global spirituality.