Nance (right) with Denise Soares (left), assistant chair of teacher education, during the SOE’s annual Awards Day ceremony on May 12.
OXFORD, Miss. — SOE Graduate Instructor Becky Nance has been selected as the winner of UM’s Graduate Instructor Excellence in Teaching Award.
The award has been given annually since 2008 to a graduate instructor through the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. The award encompasses all of the departments across campus.
“I’m humbled, when you’re awarded for doing something that you love, or to be recognized for what I consider to just be doing my job, it’s very humbling,” said Nance, graduate instructor and Ph.D. candidate in teacher education at Ole Miss.
This is the first time that a graduate student from the School of Education will receive the Graduate Instructor Excellence in Teaching Award.
Nance was nominated by one of her fellow graduate instructors, and once she was nominated, had to submit a packet of information. Her students have been behind her the entire way as well.
“When they realized that I had found out about their letters, they wanted to know if I had gotten it [the award],” Nance said. “As soon as I knew the outcome, I told them.”
Nance has just finished her coursework toward her doctorate and will be starting on her dissertation in the fall, which will focus on first-year teachers in critical needs schools in Mississippi.
“I am wanting to provide some mentor support for some first-year teachers and then just study how, does that support help them navigate that first year,” Nance said.
Johnny Lott, director emeritus, presented Nance with the Center’s “Golden Apple” trophy along with a $1,000 monetary award during the Doctoral Hooding Ceremony on Friday, May 12 2017. Her name will also be added to the Center for Excellence in Teaching plaque displayed in the J.D. Williams Library on campus.
Nance said receiving the award from Lott is meaningful to her.
“He has been a mentor to me,” Nance said. “He is in math ed and has really taken the time to invest in several of the math ed students here on campus. We have a personal connection and I am delighted that he will be the one to present the award to me.”
Nance said she hopes to graduate from the UM doctoral program in May of 2018.
By Alexandria Paton