Will Rosenzweig Awarded the 2026 Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award for Extraordinary Mentorship
Will Rosenzweig, the Co-Founder and Executive Board Chair of Ideagarden Institute, has been a teacher, mentor, and friend for hundreds of students across UC Berkeley and beyond, and we are proud to share that his dedication to teaching in service is being nationally recognized.
On September 26, 2026, Will was celebrated as an awardee of the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award, a national award given to educators whose mentorship leads students to build something that “confers a lasting benefit on the community at large…The award honors the extraordinary and enduring impact of educators whose guidance inspires students to become leaders, innovators, and changemakers.” Under 200 professors have received it since 2010.
Samantha Derrick, the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Plant Futures, nominated Will for the award because of his persistent support of the launch and growth of Plant Futures, a program of Ideagarden Institute. In Samantha’s words:
“As a first-generation Mexican American student at UC Berkeley, I cared so much about food justice and plant-centered food systems, but I had no map for turning that into a life's work when I started graduate school at Cal. Then I met Will. Will said yes to an idea that had no track record: a course on plant-centered food systems that didn't exist yet, at a school that had never taught it.
"With his support, alongside Brittany and Nina, we built UC Berkeley's first course on plant-centered food systems — 500 students signed up before a single review existed. That course became Plant Futures, which has since reached over 250,000 students across 115 universities in the US, Mexico, Canada, and India.
"Plant Futures started with a lot of people telling me it wouldn't work, to stop pushing my agenda. Will believed in me, in my co-founders, and in the mission anyway. That was enough.”
This award celebrates the power of mentorship and teachers of service - work that sits at the core of what Ideagarden offers. It's a reminder of what's possible when an emerging leader gets the right support at the right time, and it reflects our belief that mentorship plays a critical role in fueling the energy and passion behind a great idea so potential ventures can be fully realized.
About the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award Trust
The Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award Trust was founded in 2008 through the will of Gail McKnight Beckman, a legal scholar and philanthropist, to honor her mother, Dr. Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman (1898–1988), a pioneering psychologist, educator, and author. Inspired by her mother's lifelong dedication to education and social progress, Gail McKnight Beckman established the Trust to recognize educators whose extraordinary mentorship profoundly influences their students' lives and inspires them to create meaningful change. Recognizing the transformative impact of sustained and exceptional mentorship, the award celebrates educators whose former students have founded organizations or established concepts, procedures, or movements that advance the public good, embodying the spirit of mentorship, leadership, and civic engagement that defined Dr. Beckman's career.
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