CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Eleven faculty members, four academic professionals and five graduate teaching assistants at the University of Illinois were honored Tuesday (April 22) for excellence in teaching and advising. The group was recognized during a reception at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center.
Faculty members honored with the Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching:
Dale Bauer, English, is a rigorous and innovative teacher who challenges her students to excel as critical thinkers and writers. Her teaching endeavors to demystify the relationship between theory and practice: Students in her classes come to understand why they read the way they do, and how their writing about what they read relates to - and can challenge - conventional ways of knowing literary texts.
Christopher D. Benson, journalism and African American studies, is described by his students as "transformational." They develop critical thinking skills and a keen sense of social context for the work they will undertake as professionals. His goal is to "provide a solid foundation for social responsibility and media literacy." To achieve this, Benson teaches his students how "to provide information that is fair, accurate, balanced and contextual in order to facilitate more enlightened public choices."
"A mesmerizing presence on the lecture stage," Tamara Chaplin, history, seeks to instill in students "the kind of insatiable hunger for learning that propels all inspired scholarship." Her lectures and discussions continue to shape the thinking of her former students, in large part because she shows students what they are capable of. In short, Chaplin teaches her students to learn how to learn.
Ollie Watts Davis, choral division, provides students with instruction that brilliantly blends intellectual understanding with professional experience drawn from her successful career as a soloist. Davis values the educational diversity of her students, and by recognizing each student's particular strengths, personal career goals, cultural background and learning style, she tailors her methodology to best instruct them.
Alan C. Hansen, agricultural and biological engineering, serves as a model teacher and has provided leadership in curriculum development that has led to major changes in the program. He oversees the senior capstone design program, serves as adviser to student clubs and organizes a unique project-centered study abroad program in South Africa. Hansen approaches teaching by pursuing active learning, developing thinking and problem-solving skills and establishing respectful relationships with students.
Instructional staff members who received the award:
Donald DeCoste, a specialist in education in the department of chemistry, has the ability "to capture the imagination of young people and to make his courses truly memorable." His goals in teaching are that students should "understand the materials at a conceptual level and understand the nature of science." His highest compliment from a student: "I am trying to teach myself how to ask the same questions you do in a lecture, so that I don't need you anymore."
Jennifer McNeilly, an instructor and the director of the Merit Workshop Program in the department of mathematics, teaches scores of undergraduates but also trains graduate teaching assistants for undergraduate mathematics courses, leads sessions on pedagogy for math teachers around the state and has "virtually single-handedly" been responsible for the growth and achievements of the Merit Workshop Program during the past 10 years. Continually reflecting on the effectiveness of her formal teaching and office-hour consultations, she incorporates student feedback when designing new courses and lectures. For her, "good teaching is prepared teaching."
Mardia J. Bishop, the director of public speaking instruction in the department of communication, manages to make public speaking manageable and enjoyable - even for those terrified of it. She has a way of bringing all students, who come from a variety of backgrounds, up to the same level, and presents the material in a way that makes her class interesting and accessible. She embodies "everything a student would want and need in a professor: intelligence, passion and affability."
Graduate teaching assistants who won the award: Katherine Anders, mathematics; Joseph Donovan, food science and human nutrition; Emily Dworkin, psychology; Jeremy Robinett, recreation, sport and tourism; and Melanie Tannenbaum, psychology.
The awards recognize professors, instructional staff members and graduate teaching assistants who display consistently excellent performance in the classroom, take innovative approaches to teaching, positively affect the lives of their students, and make other contributions to improve instruction, including influencing the curriculum.
Faculty members and instructional staff members selected for the awards each receive $5,000 cash and a $3,000 recurring salary increase; graduate teaching assistants receive $3,500.
Other winners honored:
Neil D. Pearson, finance, and Ann Yeung, music, received the Campus Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Teaching. Each receives $5,000 and a $3,000 recurring salary increase.
Pearson believes in teaching a demanding course in which his students are expected to think and work hard. He has a reputation for being "tough" and "he doesn't tolerate slackers," but he is generous with his time for those willing to put forth the effort. He is described as being very patient as he follows through with students to ensure that they understand fundamentals.
Yeung is an energized and gifted teacher and is described by her students as "an excellent musician, a respected scholar, a dedicated teacher and mentor." Her reputation and world-class performances on and off campus not only enhance her recruiting efforts, but also more importantly, provide a performance model for her students.
Philippe H. Geubelle, aerospace engineering, received the Campus Award for Excellence in Guiding Undergraduate Research. The $2,000 award is designed to foster and reward excellence in involving and guiding undergraduate students in scholarly research. Guebelle fully integrates undergraduates into his research group, encouraging and expecting them to participate alongside his graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. His extensive efforts to involve undergraduates in his research program and to establish and promote undergraduate research opportunities in the College of Engineering, across campus and through NASA's Illinois Space Grant Consortium, which he directs, have resulted in many substantial opportunities for undergraduate students to work with faculty members to discover the rewards of research.
Scott R. White, aerospace engineering, and Charles Wright, English, received the Campus Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring, which provides each recipient with $2,000.
White's method of graduate student mentoring yields a true multidisciplinary education that not only engages students in technical exchanges but also improves their communication skills. His students are able to thrive in a high-profile, high-impact research environment because they develop the personal confidence to take risks, learn from their failures and keep striving for the pinnacle of scientific achievement.
Wright is guided by the principle that each student must be treated "respectfully and humanely" as a point of departure for helping "all students achieve their full potential as scholars and professionals." One of his doctoral students from more than 15 years ago remarked: "I have benefited beyond measure by the delight he brings to his subject and his work, by the rigorous example he sets, by his belief in his students' capabilities, and by the unstinting gift of his time and attention."
Tonya Swink, integrative biology, and Walter Hurley, animal sciences, received the Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising, which provides each recipient with $2,000.
Swink, an academic adviser, has offered the "very best and most professional service an adviser can give on a personal level to undergraduates." She combines nurturing with challenges, with the ultimate goal being to help students take responsibility for their own futures. She considers it crucial to describe every option - even those she may consider to be poor choices - for doing so gives the students a thoughtful method for approaching any decision.
Hurley, a professor, excels in a variety of nontraditional advising roles that grow out of his teaching and research. He advises student clubs, special projects and out-of-class experiential learning activities such as internships, undergraduate research and study abroad opportunities. Continually asking students "so what are you going to do with the rest of your life?" prompts them to put their experiences in the context of their future goals.
Recently, other campuswide awards were given to staff members. Eight civil service staff employees were honored with the Chancellor's Distinguished Staff Award at a banquet April 10.
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