Academic Advising Award
Kathryn A. Martensen
LAS General Curriculum Center
Kathryn Martensen alleviates incoming freshmen's fears by offering a welcoming smile, excellent advice, and genuine concern for their academic career. . She helps make this large university feel welcoming and accessible to freshmen. Because General Curriculum advisors do not work with a student though their entire college career, it is a testament to the impact of Martensen's advising that students have nominated her twice for this award. In the words of former advisees, Ms. Martensen "...has helped my college experience start off in the right direction." "She goes above and beyond to ensure that students are aware of all that this school has to offer." "I owe any success I have from here on out to her." In addition to her advising duties, Kathryn Martensen also serves as the Assistant Director of the General Curriculum Center.
Professor David Sansone
Department of the Classics
For 30 years, Professor David Sansone has shared his enthusiasm for the classics by mentoring undergraduates. He receives deep gratification from helping students learn and succeed. Professor Sansone conveys to his advisees an understanding of their need for an individualized education. David Sansone makes the university both friendly and manageable, as the following testimonials from current advisees illustrate: "His knowledge and experience in the field make him an invaluable resource for guidance." ".He treats us all with a friendly, attentive, and encouraging attitude." "In an environment that can at times be stressful and confusing, having a person with his experience be so approachable and easy to work with is truly refreshing."
Humanities Award for Excellence in Teaching
Professor Richard W. Burkhardt
Department of History
Professor Richard Burkhardt regards teaching as a "special privilege, an important responsibility, and an exciting opportunity for mutual and collaborative learning." He has appeared 41 times on the Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent. Professor Burkhardt has been involved with the Campus Honors Program since its founding in 1986, including seven years as director. The following student comments show how Professor Burkhardt's enthusiasm on teaching the history of the biological sciences impacts his students: "I walked away each day with something to ponder further." "The atmosphere he created through his presence and comportment was the real treasure of the course. It enabled the class to have frank and specific discussions on issues of real weight and importance." "What makes Professor Burkhardt so phenomenal is that the lectures he delivers, the readings he assigns, and the discussions he elicits form a synergy that truly broadens the mind."
Jody L. Shipka
Department of English
Through her creative approach to the writing process, Jody Shipka has inspired many students to enjoy the art of writing. She encourages her students to use a range of tools in their academic work such as board games, toys, or films. Ms. Shipka believes that "the core of learning comes from intense, repeated discussions of the composition in progress, discussions that require students to consider what work the piece is meant to achieve… and how choices of content, genre, media, and means of distribution and reception are working to achieve and/or to complement those effects." Ms. Shipka's dissertation director Professor Paul Prior describes her as "the most dedicated and gifted teacher" he has met and "a writing scholar poised to be a major voice nationally in the teaching of writing." One student writes: "Unbridled imagination, constant encouragement, and a drive to make life interesting make Jody Shipka the most memorable and effective teacher…"
Lynn M. Martin Award for Distinguished Women Teachers
Professor Gail E. Hawisher
Department of English
Professor Gail Hawisher is a superb teacher and an excellent teacher of teachers. She is the founding Director for the Center for Writing Studies, which helps to raise the standard of undergraduate writing across campus. Her Writing Across the Curriculum seminars teach faculty and graduate student teachers how to encourage undergraduate learning through writing as a process. Professor Hawisher founded and directs the graduate program in Writing Studies and has reorganized the Writers' Workshop, which annually helps around 4,000 students. She also helped found the new subfield of Computer and Composition, and the conference and journal that now define it. A former student writes: "She is one of the finest teachers from whom I have ever had the privilege of learning, and I hope she continues to inspire her students for years to come."
Rebecca C. Harris
Department of Political Science
Rebecca Harris educates students on current political situations and gives students the tools they need to become productive citizens. Students admire her passion, dedication, knowledge, clarity ,and conscientiousness. Ms. Harris has been awarded the Delta Sigma Omicron Prize, and the A. Belden Fields Plaque, one of the Department of Political Science's most prestigious instructional trophies. For five semesters, Rebecca Harris has taught political science for the Transition Program, which helps students who have the potential to succeed at the U of I but who did not meet the normal admission requirements. A former student writes: "Rebecca has taken many frustrated students and turned them into success stories." In the words of Professor Ira Carmen: "Rebecca is Number One. None has had a better grasp of the material; none has received from my students a broader array of kudos."
Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching by Graduate Teaching Assistants
Robert Sánchez
Department of History
Robert Sánchez has made history exciting for hundreds of Illinois students by relating key issues of the historical period to contemporary topics. In the words of former students, Mr. Sánchez: "taught with a style that brought the words and events into a picture." "Challenged the class to think outside the box and view things from a different perspective." "Rob treated his position as an opportunity, both to teach us and also to learn from us." He serves as a mentor and counselor to many minority students, helping current and former students with history and other course assignments. Robert Sánchez also teaches Spanish language sections of Latin American history, allowing students to expand their language skills in a topic other than literature or language.
Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching by Instructional Staff
John David Anderson
Department of English
John Anderson has taught eleven sections of five different literature courses, and fourteen sections of five different rhetoric courses. It is a testament to his versatility and dedication that he has excelled in all of them. Mr. Anderson's goal is "to improve students' critical thinking and reading skills, to encourage them to generate their own ideas through creative, open-ended assignments, and to enhance their ability to communicate those ideas clearly and effectively by paying close attention to the conventions of academic writing." One of his most imaginative assignments is to have his fiction class write Cliff Notes II, a reader's guide to a short story, which incorporates a wide range of writing tasks and investigative skills. A former student writes that John Anderson's success "lies in his genuine interest in his students, his passion for teaching, and his relentless pursuit to make a difference by challenging his students to maximize their potentials."
Dean's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
Professor Stephen P. Altaner
Department of Geology
Professor Stephen Altaner makes his lectures understandable and memorable by selecting topics relevant to society. He revised GEOL 118, concluding that a change in focus on natural disasters might be more appealing and still achieve the same educational goals. After the revision, enrollment increased from 19 students in the fall of 1999 to 350 students in the fall of 2003. He has played a major role in making the Earth and Environmental Option the most popular option in Geology by developing three of the major courses in the option. Professor Altaner teaches more students on a yearly basis than all other Department of Geology faculty combined and has consistently received high praise from students in his large enrollment Gen. Ed. lecture course. As a former student writes: "His humor ignited the uninspired, his knowledge quenched the pursuers of intellect, and his energy fueled a lecture hall full of students."
Professor Jeffrey S. Moore
Department of Chemistry
Professor Moore is a brilliant, innovative, dynamic, and caring educator who combines an internationally recognized research program in organic chemistry with a delightfully effective passion for undergraduate education to produce knowledgeable and incisive students. Under Professor Moore's leadership the organic chemistry courses for non-majors have been restructured into two lecture classes, each with around 300 students, thus creating a more personal atmosphere in which to engage in question/answer exchanges and class discussions. Enrollment in Professor Moore's organic chemistry courses has more than doubled since the reorganization. Students have praised his teaching, stating that he "taught with a contagious love for chemistry" and "transformed [their] opinion of chemistry from one of dismay to one of appreciation and understanding." The Department of Chemistry attributes the rise in Chemistry minors to Professor Moore's outstanding teaching performance in organic chemistry courses.
