Aaron Burns | News Co-Editor

The 2013 finalists for the George Wythe Award, Buena Vista University’s (BVU) highest award for faculty teaching excellence, have been announced. The finalists include Dr. Joni Anderson, Assistant Professor of Management; Prof. Jerry Johnson, Assistant Professor of Digital Media; Prof. Mary Mello-Nee, Associate Professor of Art; and Dr. Jason Shepherd, Assistant Professor of Computer Science.

Since 1987, BVU has honored a top teaching faculty member with the Wythe Award. The award is given through a nomination process. Students, coworkers, or alumni can nominate a faculty member who they think would be a deserving candidate.

The award was created by the late Paul and Vivian McCorkle who started an endowment for it. The recipient is given a sabbatical period, in which they can do research or work on other projects, as well as financial support in the form of a $30,000 cash award.

Anderson has been with BVU since her start at the BVU Mason City location in 1991. She then moved to the Storm Lake campus in 1999. After a leave of absence of two years, Anderson is currently in her sixth year back at BVU. Johnson started at the university in 1998, Shepherd in 2007, and Mello-Nee is currently in her twelfth year at BVU.

The unanimous reaction of all of the finalists to being nominated was that they felt honored.

“It’s nice to see that you are being recognized for your work. You see who you are up against, and you know they worked just as hard as you to get there,” Anderson said.

Anderson said that if she were to receive the sabbatical and funding from the award, she would create a series of internships more focused on business management. Anderson would attend conferences, talk with companies to find what they are looking for in new college graduates, and she would apply that to her teaching methods.

Johnson said he would work on some projects and documentaries that he has planned. He would like to go to Marceline, Missouri and research Walt Disney’s visit to the city. Johnson would use students to help produce the film as a final project. He would also like to spend some time doing a professional internship at a media outlet at Walt Disney World.

Mello-Nee would use the sabbatical to progress on her series of work, which has taken her a long time because she has only been able to work on it on the weekends. She would take the time to do what she loves to do, which is make art. Mello-Nee would also like to travel.

Shepherd has two possibilities in mind for his sabbatical. One possibility would be to return to the business world so that he could get his students more involved with real-world software development. Another possible idea of Shepherd’s is to teach and research at another institution. He believes this would help him broaden his experiences as faculty member since he has only been with BVU.

“I think it’s a great award,” Johnson said. “Paul and Vivian McCorkle’s contribution to the university is the epitome of what they expect faculty to be. It reinforces the sole concept of service learning. It also establishes the importance of teaching and finding those innovative and imaginative ways to motivate and teach students in the classroom and beyond the classroom.”

The 2013 Wythe Award winner will be announced at the Faculty and Staff Recognition Dinner on May 24.

Photos courtesy of Tyson Domingo, Mary Melo-Nee, and Jason Shepherd