Professors nominated for NSCS award

Two UConn members of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) have nominated two UConn professors for the organization's 2005 Faculty of the Year Award.

Courtney Hill, a 6th-semester psychology major, nominated sociology professor Ralph McNeal and Kerry Kozaczuk, a 10th-semester fine arts and women's studies major, nominated Cora Lynn Deibler of the Department of Fine Arts.

"We recognize that behind each exceptional scholar stands at least one extraordinary educator. Our goal is to provide the students a forum in which to thank them," said Executive Director and Founder Steve Loflin in a press release.

Hill said McNeal "immediately came to mind. He has a way about him that makes students feel very comfortable. He is an amazing professor who takes pride in his work and students."

"Going to class is not a task, or a bore, but more like going to a discussion with friends about today's most pertinent issues," Hill said.

McNeal, who started out studying engineering, math and physics at the University of Miami, spent seven years getting his bachelor's degree.

In 1986, McNeal said he realized he "was studying things I was very good at, but I didn't like, so I decided to find something I could actually call a passion - something I could do everyday and not be paid for it."

"I think it's a very rare thing for people to have a calling, for people to do what they're supposed to do. This [teaching] is my calling," McNeal said. "I have no doubt that this is what I'm supposed to do."

When he found out Hill wanted to nominate him, McNeal said he was surprised.

"I must have made an impression on her [Courtney] in one of my classes because she is not even one of my advisees," he said.

"I was raised in a working-poor community in Miami, Florida and attended a school with a dropout rate in excess of 30 percent," McNeal wrote in his award application essay. "I was one of those students, having dropped out in November of my junior year."

McNeal said one of his proudest accomplishments was, that coming from a disadvantaged background, he was able to overcome the obstacles in his path, and do something nobody else from his neighborhood had done - earn a Ph.D.

He started out teaching at Wake Forest University in North Carolina as a visiting professor. That job was supposed to have been turned into a permanent position, and it was, McNeal just never heard about it.

"After seeing friends a few years after, they asked why I never came back," he said.

McNeal said they told him they had sent e-mails telling him about the new position.

"I never got the e-mails," he said. "For me, that means this is where I was supposed to be."

McNeal has been teaching at UConn for 10 years.

Kozaczuk, nominated Deibler, her advisor.

"I nominated Cora Lynn Deibler for the award because she is an example of the kind of professor a student needs to work with to obtain a comprehensive, enjoyable and fulfilling education," Kozaczuk said.

Deibler was nominated for a similar award last spring.

"I was nominated for, and received, the Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award last spring," she said. "I don't have any knowledge of the individual(s) who nominated me, but thank you!"

"I have a lot of respect for Kerry; she is talented, smart and dedicated. She has real promise as a young illustrator," Deibler said. "Actually, that truly describes my students in general. I am fortunate to teach here."

"Professor Deibler shows enthusiasm for her job as a teacher and as an advisor, while balancing her own art career," Kozaczuk said. "She juggles many responsibilities within the art department, and does so gracefully."

Deibler said she never actually intended to become a teacher.

"Teaching was a byproduct of a University Fellowship that Syracuse University awarded to me," she said. "It turned out to be my lucky break."

"I never saw myself teaching before that, but I really fell in love with teaching through that opportunity."

After leaving Syracuse, Deibler began teaching at Truman State University in Missouri in 1995. Two years later she came to UConn.

"I place a premium on individual attention and support while maintaining high classroom standards. This balance is challenging but it is a core component of my teaching philosophy and practice. In teaching and advising I arrange much of my time to be spent in individual contact with students," Deibler wrote in her award application essay. "This is an opportunity to really know students as multi-faceted individuals and to respond to them as such. As a mentor in the arts this more developed relationship is particularly crucial."

"It is an honor and a privilege to be a facilitator in the learning process and I love the challenge of teaching at the college level, both undergrad and graduate," she said.

Deibler came to UConn in 1997 in order to coordinate the illustration area in the department of art and art history. She is now an Associate Department Head in the Art and Art History department.

As an illustrator, Deibler has an impressive client list which includes The Big Apple Circus, The New York Times, Oxford University Press, U.S. Sprint and UConn among others.

"I'd be more than honored to attend the conference and Colorado has much to offer besides," Deibler said about the possibility of winning the award.

"I might have time to scare myself silly by visiting the Overlook Hotel in Estes Park, the hotel that inspired Steven King's 'The Shining.' But I swear if I see any grim ghost-like children in the hallways, or hear anyone typing, I'll bolt for an exit, even in the daytime," she said.

The winner of this year's award will be honored at the NSCS' National Leadership Summit in Denver this July where they will receive a $1,000 personal stipend as well as a $5,000 donation in the name of the award recipient to the general scholarship fund from their university, the press release said.

According to the NSCS, the winner was selected April 1, but will not be announced until April 30.