Adjunct Educator of the Year Award Nomination Form

Nomination Process

The campus community is encouraged to nominate an outstanding PSU DuBois Adjunct Educator for their accomplishments and campus service over the past academic year.

All nominees must be adjunct educators with at least one year of prior service at Penn State DuBois and be employed in the Summer, Fall or Spring of the previous and current year. The most recent winner (Robert Anderson) is not eligible for the award.  Here is a list of eligible adjuncts for the 2023-2024 Award.

Criteria Include

1. Classroom Performance
   1. Describe how the educator motivates and interests students. Give examples of how he/she establishes rapport by showing enthusiasm, compassion, and respect for the students.
   2. Describe how the educator inspires the students to a high level of achievement. Give examples of how his/her students learn the course material and how to think critically. Describe how she/ he excels at lecturing, leading discussion, conducting labs, and/or correcting assignments.
   3. Describe how the educator may offer extra educational instruction on their subject matter before or after scheduled class periods.
2. Out-of-Classroom Activities
   1. Describe how the educator excels as a mentor who is available to his/her students and to others who ask advice.  Describe how the educator shows a genuine interest in students’ careers and life goals. 
   2. Describe how the educator is involved with and supports extracurricular student activities.

Process

1. Call for nominees. Nominees may be submitted by current students, faculty, and staff.
2. Nominations will be reviewed by a designee of the Chancellor for content and qualification. Any non-qualifying nominations will be eliminated.
3. Eligible nominees will be contacted for permission to review the candidate’s Faculty Activity Report (FAR) and self-assessment for the selection process. Once permission is granted, appropriate reports will be provided to the committee.
4. The selection committee, comprised of the Associate Chief Academic Officer and six teaching-line faculty, will meet to review nominations. A listing of strengths and weaknesses of each nominee will be sent to the Chancellor for final review.  
5. The Chancellor will determine a final winner. 

Nomination Form

Faculty, students, and staff:

Please describe your nominee’s qualifications in a narrative form. Your nomination should include a section on classroom performance and out-of-classroom activities as outlined below, with as many specific examples as possible:

Classroom Performance

• Describe how the educator motivates and interests students; establishes rapport by showing enthusiasm, compassion, and respect for students; inspires students to a high level of achievement (include specific examples); and excels at inspiring students to learn course material, promotes critical thinking, lectures, leads discussions, conducts labs and/or corrects assignments.

Out-of-Classroom Activities

• Describe how the educator excels as a mentor who is available to his/her students and to others who ask advice. Describe how the educator shows a genuine interest in students’ careers and life goals; and how the educator is involved with and supports extracurricular student activities.

The award winner will be based on the number and quality of nominations that are validated by the
Chancellor’s office using data acquired through the review process.

Ballots must be returned to Amity Maines via email at [email protected] or by online submission at https://dubois.psu.edu/Adjunct-Award by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, April 19, 2024.