Johanna Keller’s first paid job was as a teacher when she was 12 years old, helping a younger neighbor learn to read.

‘I was fascinated with the process,’ she said.

Keller decided she wanted to be a teacher at a young age, and now she is being honored for her commitment as one of three professors to receive the Meredith Professor’s Teaching Recognition Award for her development of the Goldring Arts Journalism Program in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Keller, along with five other recipients of the award, will be honored today at a 4 p.m. ceremony and reception in the Public Events Room in Eggers Hall.

The professors were awarded for the following reasons:

Keller’s Goldring program is the first in the field to offer a graduate degree in arts journalism.

Theo Cateforis, a fine-arts professor, was honored for his hands-on method in the classroom, and teaching and grading without the help of teaching assistants.

Inge O’Connor, an economist in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, created a new course called The Economics of Social Issues.

Julie Causton-Theoharis, assistant professor of teaching and leadership in the School of Education, teaches her students about new methods of facilitating special and inclusive education.

Kathleen O’Connor from the College of Law has developed a law class that allows students to write from the perspective of both the prosecutor and the defense attorney.

Roger Hallas of the English and textual studies department in the College of Arts and Sciences won the award for the Interpretation of Film course he teaches, which exposes students to film practices.

The ceremony will also honor Kendall Phillips, an associate professor of communication and rhetorical studies in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Phillips will receive the 2008 University Scholar/Teacher of the Year award.

For the Meredith awards, faculty members are nominated by their colleagues. Each nominee must have three letters of recommendation from students, and concurrence from the dean and department chair from whichever college they teach in.

Nominees must have been employed by SU for at least two years and must not be tenured. Winners are selected by a committee of Meredith professors and students, and each recipient is given $3,000.

The award was established in 2001 and proposed by professors in the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professorship Program. The awards were designed to honor non-tenured faculty, and adjunct and part-time instructors.

‘These types of awards are rare,’ Cateforis said, ‘to be honor(ed) by both your peers and your students.’

Cateforis said his teaching style reflects the students he teaches because the students are very receptive to his class and they have worth-while contributions to the class topics.

Keller said experience is the best teacher, and professors should create experiences in the classroom that students can learn from. She said students in college only learn 50 percent of their education from their professors and the other half from peer interaction.

‘I try to facilitate peer-to-peer learning,’ Keller said. ‘Everyone can learn the material. It’s only a matter of making it relevant to people’s lives.’

She explained that peer-to-peer learning is done at an intense level in the Goldring program.

Though she said plenty of professors at SU deserve the Meredith award, Keller feels honored to be a recipient.

‘A teaching award is the best thing you can get,’ she said. ‘A Meredith is very meaningful for me.’

adbrow03@syr.edu

Published on April 20, 2008 at 12:00 pm