Astin Scholarship - UCLA College of Letters and Science

UCLA Today feature on the Astin Scholars Program

Announcing:

2009-10 Astin Scholars

Center for Community Learning

Civic Engagement Minor

2009-10 Astin Scholars with Sandy and Lena Astin at October 15, 2009 reception:
Front: Alexis Bruun, Li-Tsung (Alyssa) Chen, Teresa Melendrez.
Rear: Freddy Yusuf, Cailin Crockett, Sandy Astin, Elena Salazar, Lena Astin.

Helen S. Astin

Helen S. (“Lena”) Astin, a psychologist, is a Professor Emerita of Higher Education and Senior Scholar at the Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA. She served as the Associate Provost of the College of Letters and Science at UCLA from 1983 to 1987, and during 1990 to 1992 as Interim Director of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women.

Lena Astin has been a trustee of Mt. St. Mary’s College since 1985, and served as a trustee of Hampshire College from 1972 to 1979. She has served on the Board of Governors of the Center for Creative Leadership and on the Board of the National Council for Research on Women. She has also served as a member of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable of the National Academy of Sciences, and as Chair of the Board of the American Association for Higher Education. Dr. Astin is a recipient of three honorary degrees and numerous other awards including the Howard Bowen Distinguished Career award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE).

Among her books are: Women of Influence, Women of Vision: A Cross-Generational Study of Leaders and Social Change; Human Resources and Higher Education; The Woman Doctorate in America; Higher Education and the Disadvantaged Student; The Higher Education of Women: Essays in Honor of Rosemary Park.

Her current research is on spirituality in higher education.

Helen and Alexander Astin: background

Alexander W. Astin

Alexander W. (“Sandy”) Astin is Allan M. Cartter Professor Emeritus of Higher Education and Founding Director of the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA. He is also the Founding Director of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, the nation’s largest and oldest study of college students and faculty. Previously Dr. Astin was Director of Research for both the American Council on Education and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

The author of 21 books and some 400 other publications in the field of higher education, Sandy Astin has been a recipient of awards for outstanding research from 13 national associations, a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and a recipient of eleven honorary degrees, and is a member of the National Academy of Education. The Journal of Higher Education has identified Dr. Astin as the most frequently-cited author in the field of higher education. In 1985 readers of Change magazine selected him as the person "most admired for creative, insightful thinking" in the field of higher education.

Sandy Astin’s research has focused on how undergraduate students are affected by their college experience, with particular emphasis on educational opportunity and equity, student persistence, service learning, and institutional transformation. He is currently principal investigator (with H. S. Astin) on a national study of spiritual development among undergraduates at 150 higher education institutions. His latest book is Mindworks: Becoming More Conscious in an Unconscious World (Information Age Publishing, 2007).