MISSISSIPPI STATE – A well-respected and popular professor in Mississippi State University’s Department of Agricultural Economics has received a national award for his excellence in student advising.

Randy Little is a professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences who has formally guided the career paths of more than 300 undergraduate students since he began at MSU in 1990. He has informally advised more than 1,000 students during that time as students value his wisdom and seek his guidance.

The National Academic Advising Association chose Little as a winner of the Outstanding Advising Award for Faculty Academic Advising. The honor was based on an extensive nomination procedure that included recommendations from current and former students, letters of support from colleagues and administrators in the agricultural economics department as well as other MSU departments, and materials demonstrating his professional contributions and accomplishments. He will accept the award at the annual NACADA conference in October in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Dr. Little understands and accepts the pivotal and influential role an adviser can play in a student’s life,” said Steve Turner, head of MSU’s Department of Agricultural Economics. “His advising success begins with careful listening, as he really cares about the person sitting in his office. Every new student in the department, whether a freshman or a transfer, meets with Dr. Little and immediately knows the department and Mississippi State care about them and want them to be successful.”

Little received his bachelor’s in agribusiness management from New Mexico State University, his master’s in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana, and his doctorate in agricultural economics from Oklahoma State University.
Little received the 2013 Irvin Atly Jefcoat Excellence in Advising Award, the premier advising recognition at MSU.