Psychology Department’s Arno Kolz Receives Costello Excellence in Teaching Award

Nominated by his students, the longtime Manhattan College professor was honored at the annual Costello Lecture series.

Arno Kolz, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Manhattan College, received the second annual Brother Casimir Gabriel Costello Award for Excellence in Teaching on Sept. 29.

A member of the Manhattan College faculty since 1993 and an associate professor since 1999, Kolz has taught several courses in the Psychology department, from Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 203) to Forensic Psychology (PSYC 257) to Organizational Psychology (PSYC 374). His research has primarily focused on the relationships between personality, cognitive ability, job performance and counterproductive work behavior.

“I couldn’t imagine teaching anywhere else,” Kolz said. “I love the small class size, how we get to know our students really well, and have the ability to teach and mentor students during their time in college and as alumni.”

During his time at Manhattan College, Kolz has supervised more than 20 internships, and located internships for students on six occasions. Every semester, for 21 years, Kolz has had multiple students involved in research and has taken them to conferences. Nearly all of these students have produced and presented a research project at a professional conference before graduating from Manhattan. Two have won Psi Chi undergraduate research awards. Six have gone on to earn doctorates in psychology, more than a dozen have received master’s degrees and many others have chosen careers in an array of fields, including social services, human resources, finance and law.

Nominated by students at the College and selected by a committee of professors and the dean, the award winner is a faculty member within the School of Arts who exemplifies the excellence in teaching that characterizes Manhattan College and is central to its mission. The Costello Award is funded by Brother Casimir Gabriel’s niece and her husband, Patricia and Jack Stack. Established in 2001, the Costello Lecture Series honors the memory of Brother Casimir Gabriel Costello, a longtime faculty member at Manhattan College. The lecture series began as the result of a generous donation from one of Brother Casimir Gabriel’s many grateful students, Roger Goebel ’57, professor of law at Fordham University and director of the Center on European Union Law.