Today at the annual Founder’s Day Convocation, faculty, staff and alumni will be recognized with awards tailored to their individual accomplishments.
Several alumni will also be inducted into the Centurion Society, a group established to recognize alumni who have brought national and international credit to the university.
Some faculty members were nominated by their colleagues and some were nominated by students.
“I was thrilled and very, very touched that [the nomination] came from a student, so that was great,” associate professor of teacher education Twila Lukowiak said.
Lukowiak received the Charles M. Putnam Award for Excellence in Teaching for her efforts in the classroom. Assistant professor of English Devin Murphy received the Caterpillar Inc. Faculty Achievement Award for Scholarship.
Additionally, Lukowiak said she is being recognized for her work with students.
“I’ve heard a lot from students that I’m very energetic and excited and pretty theatrical when I get to teach,” Lukowiak said. “I want to demonstrate that for them, so hopefully when they are out in the field they can demonstrate that as well to their students.”
Lukowiak said she has been teaching for her whole career and shared what she thought was a reason for her nomination.
“When you’re passionate about what you’re teaching, it makes it so nice,” Lukowiak said. “I think a lot of the times its students will see that.”
Murphy said the faculty achievement award is meant for those on the tenure track, and faculty is nominated from the publications they make.
“[The yearly presentation in departments] is for what you produce and what’s being recognized or published, so journalists do certain things and psychologists and biologists and engineers all have their own benchmarks of what they want to succeed in, so I think I’m lucky in that I’ve had a good string of publications,” Murphy said.
Murphy’s recent short fiction works appear in over 40 literary journals and anthologies.
Both Murphy and Lukowiak said they wanted to thank their colleagues.
“Seriously, my colleagues have taught me so, so much,” Lukowiak said. “They have just been wonderful, and so they took me under their wing from day one and I went into their classrooms to observe, so they have taught me so much. So, truly, they are everything to me, and we really are quite the little family.”
During the annual Founder’s Day Convocation in Dingledine Hall today, faculty and staff members will be honored for their achievements.
The following awards will be given to faculty:
Caterpillar Inc. Faculty Achievement Award for Scholarship
Yoon-Si Lee, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering & Construction
Caterpillar Inc. Faculty Achievement Award for Scholarship
Devin Murphy, Assistant Professor of English
Charles M. Putnam Award for Excellence in Teaching
Twila Lukowiak, Associate Professor of Special Education
Samuel Rothberg Professional Excellence Award
Fisher Stolz, Professor of Art
Mergen Award for Public Service
Seth Katz, Associate Professor of English
Alumni will be recognized for:
Distinguished Alumnus Award
Khalid Al-Naif ’81, President and Chief Executive Officer, Al Naif & Company, Inc.
Outstanding Young Graduate Award
Adam Cohen ’02, Executive Producer/Producer, Jeff Margolis Productions
Lydia Moss Bradley Award
TBA
The following alumni will be inducted into the Centurion Society:
Khalid Al-Naif, ’81, President and CEO Al Naif & Company, Inc.
Judith Carta ’72, Director of Early Childhood Research at the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, a Senior Scientist in the Institute for Life Span Studies and Professor of Special Education at the University of Kansas
Bill Fairfield ’70, Chairman of Dreamfield Partners, Director of Proxibid and Director of ACASS Systems.
Clyde W. Hall ’53, Regents Professor Emeritus, Department of Engineering Technology, Savannah State University
