DEF Educator of the Year Award Nomination Form

Nomination Process

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

All nominees must be full-time faculty members with at least one year of prior service at Penn State DuBois.  The two most recent winners (Holly Tkacik and Dr. Sarah Pierotti) are not eligible for the award.

Criteria include

1. Classroom Performance
   1. How the educator motivates and interests students.  
   2. How the educator establishes rapport by showing enthusiasm, compassion, and respect for the students.
   3. How the educator inspires the students to a high level of achievement (specific examples requested).
   4. How the educator excels at inspiring students to learn the course material, promotes critical thinking, lectures, leads discussion, conducts labs, and/or corrects assignments.
2. Out-of-Classroom Activities
   1. How the educator excels as an advisor who is available to his/her advisees and to other students who ask advice.  Describe how the educator shows a genuine interest in students’ careers and life goals.
   2. How the educator is involved with and supports extracurricular student activities.

Process

1. Call for nominees.  Nominees will be taken from current students, faculty and staff.  
2. Nominations will be reviewed by Committee Chair and Chancellor’s office for content and qualification.  Any non-qualifying nominations will be eliminated and reported at committee meeting.  
3. Eligible nominees will be contacted for permission to review the candidate’s FAR and student evaluations for the selection process.  Once permission is granted, appropriate reports will be provided to the committee.  
4. Selection committee will meet – Chancellor, Academic Affairs Committee, and two immediate past award winners.
5. Winner will be selected and ensured to be at commencement ceremony.
6. Award will be announced by DEF President during commencement ceremony.

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 an advisor who is available to his/her advisees and to others who ask advice.  Describe how the educator shows a genuine interest in student 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 Laura Pentz’s Hiller mailbox or sent to her email, [email protected] by 5:00 p.m. on March 29, 2024.