Professors honored for influence on students
Fifteen Utah State University professors will be honored for their influence in students’ lives during a banquet March 31.
Top Prof Night is an annual event that is sponsored by the service-oriented group, Mortar Board, which is the national college senior honor society.
“[Members nominate instructors] who really connected with them on a personal level, have given them opportunities they didn’t even expect or inspired their lives in some way,” said Kate Ramirez, alumni chair of Mortar Board and chairperson of Top Prof Night.
Each year, Mortar Board chooses 50 new members who are in the top 35 percent of the junior class to be members during their senior year.
“If we get more then 50 applicants, then we narrow it with the other activities and involvement,” Ramirez said. One of the activities that takes place is Top Prof Night where members can nominate an instructor who has influenced their life, whether in school or life in general, she said. They are then able to present the award to their professor during the banquet.
Professor Sonia Manuel-Dupont has been nominated numerous times, and said she has attended many banquets, each hosted by a different group of members.
“Each group puts their own flavor on it,” she said.
This year’s program will feature a speech by Executive Vice President and Provost Raymond T. Coward and a number of honored guests.
Ramirez nominated Associate Professor Kim Corbin-Lewis of communicative disorders and deaf communication at USU.
“She doesn’t take the fact that she’s a Ph.D. professor and try to be above you at all – she’s on your level,” Ramirez said.
She said she had Corbin-Lewis for Speech Language Pathology and liked the fact that she made sure every student understood what was being taught.
The professors who will be honored are from all departments of the university. Professor KimberLeigh F. Hadfield from the mathematics and statistics department was nominated by Kyler Ovard, who serves as president of Mortar Board this year. Ovard said he liked how Hadfield was able to connect with her students.
“I have had professors where you feel a gap between the receiver and presenter of information, which makes the learning environment not as stimulating,” Ovard said. “I’m not exactly sure how, but Professor Hadfield is able to close that gap, and creates a very healthy and effective learning environment.”
Many of the professors feel honored to be recognized from such a large group of people.
“I feel it is a tremendous honor that you as one person would have had that much of an effect on a person’s life,” Manuel-Dupont said.
-albaugh@cc.usu.edu