DIGGS TEACHING SCHOLAR AWARDS - 2003

Andy Becker teaches multiple levels of Latin, Greek and Classic courses, including one he has developed for the European Studies Program in Riva San Vitale on ancient and modern poetry, and a distance learning Latin literature course. He also frequently lectures for GTA seminars and the Critical Methods course for the Area studies Masters Program. Becker is actively involved in outreach to high schools and has been a teacher and director of the prestigious Governors' Latin Academy for many years. He often speaks and leads workshops at the Mountain Valley Latin Teachers' Association, the Foreign Language Association of Virginia, and the Classical Association of Virginia.

Elisabeth Bloomer teaches first-year writing and higher-level creative writing in the English Department. She is a long-time GTA advisor and currently directs the GTA Advising program, thereby also inspiring the department's newest teachers. Bloomer's dedication to students and to the English department is illustrated in many ways, including her tutoring of upcoming freshmen in the Upward Bound program and service to the Department's Undergraduate Committee while it was redesigning the undergraduate curriculum. She was a pioneer in the department's first forays into on-line teaching and has continued to develop on-line tools for the Creative Writing and First-Year Writing courses.

Tonya Smith-Jackson teaches a variety of courses at all levels in Industrial and Systems Engineering, with an emphasis on Human Factors. She has been instrumental in diversifying the ISE curriculum, and received two Student Success Grants to help students understand how diversity applies to engineering problems, as well as a CEUT Teaching Learning Grant to study cultural ergonomics, which involved travel to the University of Ghana-Legon to observe safety and culture among workers in West Africa.