Becky Wai-Ling Packard

Associate Professor of Psychology and Education

Specialization: Career and identity development in adolescence; mentoring; motivation of women and low-income ethnic minority youth, particularly in science and technology; community-based partnerships

Becky Wai-Ling Packard is interested in the intersection of motivation, identity, and mentoring. She aims, she says, "to understand how young people without easily identifiable role models and mentors in career domains manage to find the mentoring they need and sustain their desired possible selves, or who they hope to become in the future."

Packard's research focuses on the mentoring of women pursuing science and technology careers; the aspirations and mentoring of urban ethnic minority low-income adolescents, especially in science and technology; and understanding complex pathways toward higher education.

Community-based learning partnerships are an important part of Packard's work. She has designed mentoring programs in the context of her courses featuring partnerships between Mount Holyoke students and area youth from nearby Holyoke and Springfield. She received the Volunteer of the Year Award from Girls Inc., Holyoke.

Packard's work is supported by the National Science Foundation's CAREER program. In June 2005, she went to the White House to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government upon early career scientists.

Packard's numerous scholarly articles have been published in such journals as Career Development Quarterly, Mentoring and Tutoring, Journal of Career Development, Journal of College Science Teaching, Advancing Women in Leadership, and Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.

News Links:

"Alums, Faculty Collaborate on Teen Project," Office of Communications, November 9, 2006

"Packard Receives Presidential Award at White House," Office of Communications, June 2005

"Packard Receives NSF Grant," College Street Journal, March 2004

"Becky Wai-Ling Packard: Teaching that No Hurdle's Too High," Vista, Spring 2001

"High School Juniors Come to MHC for Inspirational Weekend," College Street Journal, October 26, 2001

"Advancing Women in Leadership," Advancing Women, Winter 2002