USU professor named Utah’s Carnegie Professor
This year’s national Carnegie Professor of the Year Award for Utah was given to USU environmental engineering professor Laurie McNeill, who said her work with Engineers without Borders and kind letters of recommendation from students and faculty were crucial in winning the award. Last year’s award was given to USU professor David Peak.
Utah’s Carnegie Professor of the Year Award has been received by USU staff 10 of the last 16 years, and Chris Haley, associate dean of the College of Engineering, said this is because USU is a school that encourages its teachers to explore and improve.
“Not only is she an excellent teacher in the classroom, she is great outside the classroom and I have noticed the effort and time she puts into her students,” said McNeill’s student Oscar Marquina, a senior majoring in environmental engineering. “She’s very attentive to her students needs, she is willing to put in a lot of effort to make sure the students are learning and are getting everything they’ve asked for.”
When McNeill returned to her USU office from the ceremony in Washington D.C. where she accepted the award, McNeill’s supporters had decorated her office in streamers, congratulatory posters and colorful plastic balls across the floor. McNeill said she was thrilled to associate with the best professors in the country. She came home to Logan feeling inspired, she said.
“She just dazzles me,” Haley said, “I am just so pleased to see all of her hard work and her willingness to go a hundred extra miles for the students be rewarded.”
McNeill brings an abundance of skills in both formal and informal education, Haley said. Formal education referring to the traditional classroom setting experience and informal to active learning through iClickers and group discussion. She said making informal education work within a classroom of approximately 60 students can be challenging.
“To me, one big thing – and it’s really a simple thing – but, just communication-wise in class, she really articulates herself well and is able to keep your attention,” Marquina said. “She makes you interested, but makes sure you understand every step of the lecture. She was born to teach.”
Haley said she believes the award is an affirmation that all of McNeill’s hard work is recognized and sometimes professors need these affirmations to inspire them to work harder, to achieve more.
A high school chemistry teacher first sparked McNeill’s interest in her current field.
From that interest, her passion for environmental engineering transformed throughout the rest of her schooling. Before teaching at USU, where she has been for 11 years, McNeill said she received her doctorate at Virginia Technical University and taught her first courses there.
“I’ve seen her interact with her students,” Haley said. “She learns their names and who they are, so the classroom setting is very positive, very friendly, but rigorous.”
Haley said it is challenging for many professors to find the balance of connecting with students on a personal level, but keep hight expectations. In addition to McNeill’s effective teaching methods, she has been a key player in the engineering undergraduate research program which is separate from USU’s general undergraduate research program. She also wrote a grant aimed to help prepare doctoral students by establishing three courses they are required to take to become better instructors.
McNeill works closely with the Engineers Without Borders program, which allows engineers to travel internationally and learn to apply their skills in diverse settings. Marquina said he was able to travel to Mexico through this program where he used Spanish – his second language – often, and interacted in an unfamiliar culture with a spectrum of people.
“Being a good teacher is always being involved in thinking about what worked and what didn’t work,” Haley said. “It’s not like you just pull the yellow notes off the shelf and go in and babble. McNeill is consciously thinking of ways to improve, and that takes time.”
– catherine.meidell@aggiemail.usu.edu