The iSchool is honored to announce that Beth Patin and Michael A. Fudge Jr. have received Meredith Teaching Recognition Awards. Patin received the Early Performance Award and Fudge received the Continuing Excellence Award.
Prof. Beth Patin
The Meredith Professorships are awards that recognize outstanding teaching from non-tenured faculty members at Syracuse University. The awards are meant to honor excellent work from professors at all stages of their careers and improve the learning environment on campus. Award winners receive funding for professional development that can be used for equipment, materials, or travel.
While Patin received the award for early career excellence, she joined the iSchool with more than 20 year of teaching experience with every age from preschool to doctoral students. She currently teaches LIS 511, the introductory library professions course, and a class on cultural competency.
“It’s pretty amazing to receive this award during such a hard year,” she said. “Being recognized during such challenging times makes it mean that much more to me.”
Patin is also excited about the opportunities she can create for students using the funding that comes with the award. She has not chosen any specific projects yet, but hopes to use the money to buy books, invite guest speakers to campus, or host a seminar on teaching.
“I want to use the funding in the most impactful way possible, so I’m trying to be very thoughtful about how I can use it to help students grow their love of teaching during their time at the iSchool,” she said. “Often, doctoral students don’t get enough experience teaching during their time in school, so I’d love to use the funding in a way that helps them become more comfortable teaching in the classroom.”
Prof. Michael Fudge
Fudge is a Professor of Practice and teaches a variety of courses in programming, database management, and cloud computing. With more than 20 years of teaching experience and a background working as an IT professional, he always tries to make sure that his students see the value in what they are learning.
“The subjects I teach are highly technical, and not everyone is inclined to do well in technical subjects so I try to make my courses as interesting, engaging, and as valuable as possible,” Fudge said. “I was really honored when I received the award because it means that what I’m doing in my classroom is important and it’s a nice justification that I’m headed in the right direction.”
Like Patin, he has many ideas for what he will do with the funding that comes with the award. He hopes to invest in resources for students, such as equipment or training for his computing cluster or purchasing textbooks and supplies for students who have financial difficulties.
Both Patin and Fudge are excited to continue teaching and using their funding to help students at the iSchool under their Meredith Professorships.
“I love my audience: the students,” Fudge said. “The students here come from such a diverse set of backgrounds. For example, students with less of a background in programming often come up with extremely creative projects that I never would have thought of, so I appreciate the diversity they bring to the classroom.”
“My favorite part about working at the iSchool is the relationships I have with students,” Patin said. “I love helping them question and be critical of the world around them and grow as scholars. Watching students grow from reading other individual’s work to creating their own is such a special process.”
