ASEE Section Outstanding Two Year College Teaching Award

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The award, which focuses on outstanding classroom performance, recognizes teachers of engineering and engineering technology students and serves as an incentive to make further significant contributions to teaching at a two year college.

The Award: The award consists of a certificate, prepared by ASEE PSW, and an appropriate honorarium presented by the local section. Presentations are made at the section annual meeting.

 Qualifications: Candidates may be teachers of any engineering or engineering technology subject included in the curriculum of any two year college awarding associate degrees. In addition to technical courses, subjects may include the humanities and social studies, mathematics and science.

ASEE PSW recognizes the term “engineering education” to encompass the full academic spectrum of instruction, research, scholarship, practice, and service.  To that end, educators should consider their commitment to the Strategic Goals of ASEE:  Innovation, Excellence, Access, Advocacy and Public Policy, with special focus on Diversity and Inclusion.

The teacher, as an individual, must:

  • Demonstrate excellence in teaching and the ability to inspire students to high levels of scholastic achievement, character growth and leadership potential.
  • Demonstrate outstanding subject matter competence and the ability to develop courses and curricula to serve the wide range of abilities found in community college students.
  • Show evidence of success in creatively providing students with mentoring, career planning, program design and transfer guidance towards successful completion of their first career preparation.
  • Possess and be able to communicate a broad and accurate knowledge of the subject area.
  • Possess self-confidence, create a feeling of harmony between self and students and be able to meet difficulties with poise.
  • Possess a sense of proportion, stressing fundamentals and disregarding trivial detail. Give assignments that challenge students, and require thinking in the completion of assignments.
  • Teach a minimum of four courses per term for a full calendar year.
  • Have considerable endorsement from students, using both regular course evaluations and individual letters of recommendation as evidence.
  • Attend the section annual meeting at which the award is presented; and make a presentation at that meeting (or the following section meeting) to share some element of his/her success as a teacher.
  • Possess a strong record of activity in ASEE or the educational activities of another professional society, or within their community college system.

The teacher’s contributions to the profession should include at least two of the following:

  • Participation in the development of courses or curricula.
  • Development of teaching equipment or development of a wider application of teaching equipment previously developed.
  • Contribution to the improvement of laboratories or other facilities.
  • Development or authorship of instructional material or a text that enhances the student learning process.
  • Publication of original work, through any medium, that enhances the engineering education process or adds to the literature pertaining to teaching methodologies.
  • Service as a mentor to other teaching faculty or participation in the conduct of seminars and workshops that are focused on helping other teachers improve their classroom effectiveness

ASEE and Local Participation:

Possess a strong record of activity in ASEE or the educational activities of another professional society or within the community college system.

Nomination Process: All ASEE members are urged to recognize outstanding teaching by submitting the package as one file to Jessica Perez, Vice-chair of Faculty Awards: joperez@cpp.edu with subject line: Two- Year Faculty Award. The nomination is to be submitted by February 14th. The nomination package consists of the following:

  1. A cover page with a short statement, not to exceed 100 words, giving major accomplishment for which the award is being made.
  2. A Curriculum Vitae
  3. Documentation related to the award criteria consisting of no more than 4 pages. (Other personal vita/information will be disregarded).
  4. Candidate’s statement (no more than 500 words) regarding their teaching philosophy.
  5. Two letters of recommendation from students or past students.
  6. Two letters of recommendation from faculty, administration, or industry peers.

Eligibility: Membership in ASEE is not an eligibility requirement for the awards that are offered. Any exceptions are noted under specific awards, such as the Distinguished Service Citation.

How to Nominate

Self-nominations are accepted. All materials should be compiled into one pdf and emails to Jessica Perez, the vice chair for faculty awards at joperez@cpp.edu.

Nominations should not include voluminous materials, such as exhibits, samples or numerous recommendations of former students. Clear, concise statements of achievements are of more value.

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