Faculty Awards Honor Exceptional Instructors

The 2018 Faculty Instructional Award winners were celebrated during a ceremony for faculty and families on Aug. 29. The awards are part of an effort to recognize and honor individual excellence in teaching. The Faculty Instructional Awards are designed to reward those instructors at Kalamazoo Valley who actively encourage students’ intellectual curiosity, engage them in the enterprise of learning and have a life-long impact.

Nominations are made by current students, faculty and staff members. Winners are announced at the start of the fall semester during Faculty Seminar Days. This year’s winners were Melinda Bertch, Cathleen Egan, Darrell Davies, Verne Mills, Jeff Shouldice and Lisa Winch.

English instructor Ron Higginbotham introduced recipients and spoke about the importance of the awards. He noted that on a recent trip to his hometown in Louisiana, he did not visit his former schools because his teachers ridiculed him instead of offering encouragement.

“It took me 25 years to get back to school because I didn’t think I could do it,” he recalled. “That didn’t change until I came here.” His positive experience as a nontraditional student at Kalamazoo Valley had a profound impact on his life. “I thought about those influential instructors when I was reading these nominations,” he said. “You really are people who make a difference.”

Bertch teaches math and received many accolades. “For the first time in my 38 years of life, I finally understand the fundamental beginnings of algebra. Ms. Bertch is engaging and really goes the extra mile for her students. I have seen her spend a few minutes after class with ex-students who needed extra help with math, just because they learned best with her,” one of her nominators said. Egan, a business instructor, received high praise, too. “Throughout my entire educational career, I have never had a more encouraging instructor than Cate Egan. She has helped me develop confidence in myself, influenced me to continue on with my goals at Valley, and has been the most supportive teacher I have encountered. She even took the time to reach out and help me while I was struggling outside of the classroom, something most instructors won’t do. I really feel as if Cate Egan cares about her students and wants to see them succeed in life, and I am very grateful to be able to have her as an instructor,” one of Egan’s nominators said.

Biology instructor Davies is well-liked because of his clear expectations and consistent encouragement. A nominator said, “Instructor Davies is very thorough, cares about student success and pushes his pupils to pay close attention to detail. I appreciate his teaching style for laying out all expectations clearly and making all rules and regulations easy to understand and follow. I wish more teachers practiced his ethic and taught the way he does. He leaves no room for misunderstanding. He helps us learn the best he can and shows us how to make full use of all the resources we have available to us.”

Verne Mills, also a biology faculty member, was described as a master teacher. Fellow biology instructor Jack Bley announced Mills’ award and said, “There is a master teacher at Kalamazoo Valley who rarely gets the acknowledgement he deserves because his work is so consistently reliable, extraordinarily effective and humbly understated. Verne Mills leads the pack, not only in our biology department, but also on thru the sciences and into all the divisions. He is admired by all his colleagues. The seminars he leads for biology are of a quality that is seen at national meetings where field experts are called upon to explain esoteric concepts to colleagues, laypersons and the press. Evidence of this is that whenever there is a faculty pre-semester seminar series Verne is asked to deliver one of his previous biology journal club presentations, and he has also been asked to deliver these to the Michigan Community College Biologists twice-a-year gatherings. On the student side, Verne’s intensity and attention to detail, especially in his lab set-ups, assures that his cell biology classes are always full. More significantly, his more advanced genetics classes always have a waiting list because students from other universities have heard of his mastery of both the content and the delivery of a very difficult topic. In the trades, the honorific Master is awarded to the best carpenters, electricians and tradesmen and women; in teaching, Verne defines Master in this profession.”

Retired law enforcement instructor Jeff Shouldice also received a Faculty Instructional Award. “Mr. Shouldice deserves this nomination because he is an amazing professor. He makes the class come to life with his personal stories about being an officer, and he doesn’t sugar coat that this field isn’t for everyone. He makes it clear with the right mindset you can achieve anything. Before taking a class with Mr. Shouldice I was on the fence about my career path with criminal justice but now he has opened my eyes and I want to become a police officer.

He cares about his students and doesn’t want anyone to fail, he pushes us to our limit and I would recommend him to anyone thinking about criminal justice,” one of his former students said. Shouldice, who retired at the end of the winter semester this past year, said he was humbled by the honor.

Math instructor Lisa Winch received the final award. One nominator said, “As an older student who graduated from high school over 30 years ago, the parent of very young children, and with an intensive full-time job schedule of seven consecutive days before a day off, coming back to school was undoubtedly a challenge. I’ve needed the support of many including my “personal board of directors” (of which my wife is the head) and others to aid in my academic success. Lisa has definitely made my experience enjoyable and engaging while providing me with the encouragement needed to maintain the commitment towards achieving my goals.”

Another praised her for helping build a solid foundation in the subject of math. "Mrs. Winch was my Calculus I teacher and when I saw she taught Calculus II as well, I had to sign up for her again. Her teaching style is great for people advanced in calculus or even beginners like I was. I used to think my dream of becoming an electrical engineer would be too hard, but I believe she helped me prepare for my future in all my math classes,” the former student said. Higginbotham said the award serves as recognition of the importance of teaching. “These people are good examples of what we all are and what we aspire to be,” he said. “We should recognize each other in every way we can.” Higginbotham said he thinks most problems are the result of misunderstandings and ignorance. “I’m looking at the solution now,” he said to his colleagues.