LSC’s Beaulieu Wins “Excellence in Teaching” Award
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities’ Board of Trustees recently presented Excellence in Teaching awards, the system’s highest academic honor, to four faculty members, including Lake Superior College art instructor Dorian Beaulieu.
Dorian Beaulieu
The honorees were selected from the group of outstanding educators nominated by their college presidents. “The Board of Trustees’ Excellence in Teaching Awards are a clear demonstration of the board’s strategic direction to promote and measure high-quality learning programs and services,” said Dan McElroy, who chairs the board’s Academic and Student Affairs Committee. “In honoring the best of the best within our system, we also can take great satisfaction in presenting to those outside our system the excellent faculty who are truly great teachers.”
A panel of judges that included faculty members, presidents, administrators and students reviewed the nominees and recommended the four honorees to the trustees. In addition to Beaulieu, Chris Austin, economics instructor at Normandale Community College; Ernie Parker, fluid power engineering technology instructor at Hennepin Technical College; and Deborah Roiger, biology instructor at St. Cloud Technical College also received the award.
The awards panel cited Beaulieu for his emphasis on developing and helping students rediscover their creative talents and self-confidence. His use of problem-solving and small-group work informs his approach to artistic creativity. His respect for individual perception and the value of a creative attitude are integral to his classes. Student art exhibits also are a key component of his teaching methodology.
Chancellor James H. McCormick said, “The faculty members who are honored today are living examples of how the core of program and college excellence is teaching and learning. These teachers are the ones who bring knowledge, experience and a passion for learning to our students. I am very proud that we are recognizing teaching as the cornerstone of our colleges and universities. For me, there is no higher calling.”
The four honorees were selected from among 29 Board of Trustees Outstanding Educators. Cynthia Annable, an instructor in Lake Superior College’s Respiratory Care Practitioner program, was among the Outstanding Educators nominated for the award and recognized as an Outstanding Educator by the Board of Trustees.
This is the third year that the board has presented its Excellence in Teaching Awards. Each of the four honorees receives $5,000 and a medallion hand-crafted in the jewelry design and manufacture program at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. A short video about the program featuring the four award winners is available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYqZQeexXSE.
Additional information about this year’s award winners and nominees is available at www.mnscu.edu/media/newsreleases/current/article.php5?id=95.