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The Elon College Faculty
Excellence Awards for 2006 were presented on May 4,
2006
The Excellence in Teaching Award recognizes a faculty member who exemplifies the Elon teacher-scholar -- outstanding in the classroom, current in the discipline, and committed to the intellectual development of students. Elon's mission statement calls for "a rich intellectual community characterized by active student engagement with a faculty dedicated to excellent teaching." The selection committee looked for excellence in the classroom as tangibly demonstrated by teaching and administrative evaluations for the preceding three years. Equally important were intangible factors such as inspiring students in the discipline, embracing ways to engage students in active learning, being available to students outside the classroom, being known as an excellent academic adviser, and having a willingness to teach where needed.
We are honored to present the Excellence in Teaching Award to two Elon College Faculty.
Katie King (Department of
Psychology). Katie demonstrates the very best
of what can happen when one applies the scholarship of
teaching and learning to the classroom. Guided by her own
research into how people develop complex understandings of
the world, her classes are meticulously planned efforts to
bring her students to new ways of seeing the world and
themselves. Whether she is teaching her popular section
of senior seminar on emerging adulthood, or teaching
educational psychology to current and future
classroom teachers, she is guided by a passionate
belief that students can and want to be engaged in a
demanding and meaningful dialogue of ideas. By
providing careful scaffolding of core academic skills,
creatively crafted projects that build upon each other as
they push students toward ever-greater complexity of
analysis, and detailed and encouraging feedback,
Katie’s students repeatedly surprise themselves with
what they’re capable of achieving. In the words
of some of those students: “the main thing Dr. King
tries to do in her classes is to challenge her students to
think beyond simply what we read in the textbooks and ask
questions about how this information applies to the
world”; and “she really encourages students to
learn and shows a genuine concern for their progress in and
out of class”; and finally, “I have changed the
way I think about myself, others and teaching…I have
learned to not be so focused on my grade and rather to focus
on learning and comprehending the material at a level in
which I could connect it to other things I have
learned…..I want to give my students this type of
motivation.” Katie’s mentoring has resulted
in student presentations at SURF and NCUR, publication of
journal articles, and several students going on to pursue
their Ph.D.’s in educational psychology. Perhaps
what is most telling about the magic Katie can work is how
her belief in and demanding expectations of her students
bring them to a well-earned belief in themselves.
Katie, thank you for your excellence in teaching.
David Powell(Department
of Computing Sciences) David is an engaging teacher
who strives always to be better. The students fortunate
enough to have David are consistently challenged in and out
of the classroom. He is known as a tough teacher, but
the students still look forward to his classes because they
know they will learn interesting and exciting skills and
knowledge. Students often hear David declare "You're
late!" Simply put, he believes that every minute
in the classroom is a chance to learn, and he does not want
to waste any. Comments from students include:
“best teaching style of any professor I have
had”; and “I have never spent so much time and
effort in class before”; and “this class/lab
combination is ideal to learn about concepts and then to
apply them, all classes should be like this
course.” David continually tries new approaches,
software packages, and techniques. He is free with his
time outside of the classroom and will spend hours with a
student looking at a single problem. David is currently
completing the second iteration of a unique Computer Science
course called Intelligent Decision Making. This course,
offered in conjunction with a UNC Office of the President
grant for teaching high-performance computing to
undergraduate students, was taken by students at five North
Carolina institutions as well as at Elon over the North
Carolina Research and Education Network (NCREN). David
was the architect of this team-taught course that combined
computer optimization and the emerging field of grid
computing. Not content with just using the NCREN
technology, David and his collaborators developed a new
technological approach to delivering the course to the remote
campuses by using a combination of the NCREN video and Web
Conferencing software. David’s accomplishments in
teaching as well as in curriculum development, administration
of the Computing Sciences department, and in his research
affirm that he is without doubt an exceptional example of the
Elon Teacher-Scholar. David, thank you for your
excellence in teaching.
The Excellence in Service/Leadership Award recognizes a faculty member who richly contributes to the ongoing welfare and betterment of the College, the University, and the profession. We value the many service and leadership roles performed by faculty. The teacher-scholar document calls on faculty to "dedicate their talents, experience, and leadership skills to activities that sustain, develop, and improve the entire institution." We value presence on campus, noting over time who does the big and little tasks that make us a better College. The selection committee focused on the tangible results of service for the preceding year. Equally important were intangible factors such as a willingness to volunteer one?s time when needed, to carry new ideas to reality, and to engage in shared governance.
We are honored to present the Excellence in Service/Leadership Award to two Elon College Faculty.
Donna Van Bodegraven(Department of Foreign Languages) Donna has
provided outstanding service to Elon since her arrival in
1999. She is well-known on campus as an excellent
teacher and extraordinary administrator. Donna has
served as Chair of the Department of Foreign Language for
seven years, and guided both the department and the
institution through the adoption and implementation of our
current foreign language proficiency requirement. A
colleague notes that “Donna’s exceptional
creative and administrative abilities are essential to the
continued growth of both the Foreign Languages program and
the Foreign Languages department at Elon.”
Another colleague notes that “Donna has one of the most
important qualities of leadership – the ability to
listen.” Donna’s contributions to the life
of the institution include her work on the Study Abroad
Committee and the Athletics Committee. And, for the
past two years Donna has served as chair of Curriculum
Committee. This is a demanding position that requires a
willingness to understand the requirements of all of the
majors on campus, as well as the General Studies
program. It is her responsibility to examine proposals
to alter majors and minors, add and delete courses, alter
courses, and add new programs, always with an eye toward the
impact of these changes on the institution as a whole.
This year, she also organized the subcommittee of Curriculum
Committee that prepared the white paper for the upcoming
Academic Summit. If this isn’t enough, Donna
currently serves as President-elect of Phi Kappa Phi and
chairs the PKP Graduate Fellowship Committee. Her
commitment and leadership ensure the continuing success of
Phi Kappa Phi at Elon. Finally, Donna is a passionate
supporter of Elon events, and a huge fan of Elon’s
football program. Her devotion to the Department
of Foreign Languages, the students and to Elon is well
evidenced in the service that she renders to the
institution. Donna, thank you for your excellence in
Service-Leadership.
Tom Mould(Department of
Sociology and Anthropology) Tom exemplifies the
definition of excellence in service and leadership.
Over the past year, he has committed his efforts to several
tasks that display his dedication to the growth and
improvement of Elon as a university for students as well as a
university for the larger community. Tom has directed
the Social Science Fellows program as it has transitioned
through several changes in conjunction with the growth of the
program. He was tapped for the Elon College Fellows
program and for teaching GST 110 to the Fellows because he
can range over a number of academic disciplines easily and
because he has a fine touch with students. As a
director in the Fellows Program, Tom coordinates the Elon
College Fellows Winter Term Experience – Paths of
Inquiry in the Arts and Sciences; he helped develop the
Fellows junior seminar; and he created the Fellows Rite of
Passage. He maintains an open-door policy and almost
daily has Fellows dropping by to touch base on various
academic concerns. In addition, Tom has worked
tirelessly with an interdisciplinary faculty committee to
develop and launch the Program for Ethnographic Research and
Community Studies (PERCS), which has a home in the Sociology
& Anthropology house. Under Tom’s leadership,
the PERCS advisory committee has developed teaching modules,
a brochure, and an ambitious five-year plan. Tom serves
on the campus-wide Social Honor Code committee, the library
committee and has gone beyond Elon’s walls to serve in
various capacities within the community, including serving as
a board member for the Women’s Resource Center and on
the Media Board for the American Folklore Society.
Despite his heavy service, leadership and teaching
commitments, Tom is an active scholar, having published two
books and numerous articles while at Elon. Tom, thank
you for your excellence in Service-Leadership.
The Excellence in Scholarship Award recognizes a faculty member whose scholarly work has made a significant intellectual impact. Elon's teacher-scholar model describes scholarship as "the most fundamental form of professional activity." We value the scholarship of discovering new knowledge, integrating knowledge, applying knowledge, and developing pedagogical innovations. The selection committee considered tangible evidence of peer-reviewed research and creative activity that was published or presented during the preceding year. Equally important were intangible factors such as supporting the scholarly endeavors of colleagues, advancing the University's reputation, and mentoring students in undergraduate research. At Elon, a professor cannot be measured by the articles published, to the exclusion of the lives inspired.
We are honored to present the Excellence in Scholarship Award to Yoram Lubling (Department of Philosophy).
Yoram’s scholarship springs
from the same passions that make him so effective a teacher
in the classroom: personal experience and an insistence on
making philosophy concrete, making philosophy itself make a
difference. Yoram has published widely on
service-learning and on pragmatism as a philosophy of
education as well as a general approach to the world.
Yoram’s work this year includes two articles,
three book chapters, two book reviews, and four invited
presentations. The articles include: “John Dewey
and the problem of Pacifism,” published in the journal
Contemporary Philosophy; and
“Philosophy’s Living Pedagogy,” published
in the journal BRIDGES: An Interdisciplinary Journal of
Theology, Philosophy, History and Science. The book
chapters include: “Teaching the Shoah: Philosophy and
the Holocaust,” and “Service-Learning: When the
Goal and Process of Education is One and the
Same.” Yoram’s invited presentations
include the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem and the Academy of
Sciences in Prague. Finally, his book Twice-Dead
was accepted for publication and is in press. The book
is an attempt to recover and defend the memory of his
grandfather, Moshe Lubling, who was a community leader and
who died as one of the planners of the Jewish revolt in the
Auschwitz death camp. Elie Wiesel, the Nobel
prize winner, writes: “I personally have been
particularly impressed with Yoram’s investigation into
contemporary philosophical issues surrounding the
Holocaust…as a member of the second-generation -- the
son of a Holocaust survivor -- he has undertaken the struggle
to preserve memories of those dark times, the necessity of
memory, both individual and institutional, and the challenges
therein -- his thoughts on this subject are of an abiding
interest to myself and my colleagues.” Another
colleague notes that while Yoram’s record of research
publication is excellent, “he also has other important
virtues which must be very central to the project of Elon
University, he is a superb example of the genuine
teacher-scholar, an increasingly rare
commodity.” Yoram, thank you for your
excellence in scholarship.
To further honor the recipients and celebrate our excellence, two very special musical numbers were performed. A male ensemble from the Department of Performing Arts performed Bio Doi from Miss Saigon and then seniors Rob Marnell and Perry Medlin performed Lilly’s Eyes. Both performances were accompanied by Sharon LaRocco.