Heller, an award recipient, compared the importance of an adviser to the importance of having oxygen to breathe.
Heller said he was surprised to learn that he had won the Excellence in Mentoring Award because he had never heard of it. But once he found out what the award was for, he was pleased, he said.
When asked how the deaths of the two students affected him, Heller said that it caused him and his peers to think about what they were doing wrong and what they were doing right for their students.
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"Being an adviser is caring, watching, and having time for students. "I guess I must be doing an okay job," Heller said.