On the evening of April 9 in the Moore Lounge, a two-hour awards ceremony took place. Faculty gathered to honor the recipients of the James R. Underkofler Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award and the Phee Boon Kang’73 Prizes for Excellence in Advising and Mentoring, with the Phee Boon Kang awards being given to both a staff and faculty member.
Before the ceremony, attendees were given time to sample the food catered by Bon Appetit and find their seats. Donna Oliver began the ceremony by acknowledging the sponsorship of Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges & Universities and Alliant Energy.
The James R. Underkofler award is named after the longtime CEO of Alliance Energy and was established in 1995 as the college’s highest award. Gregory Koutnik, an assistant professor of Political Science, was the recipient of this award. The Phee Boon Kang award is named after a 1973 graduate and is meant to honor excellence in the field of advising and mentoring. Emily Sager, the assistant director of Career Works, was the recipient of the staff Phee Boon Kang award, while Koutnik was honored once again with the faculty Phee Boon Kang award.
Koutnik’s speeches focused on his appreciation of the campus and the skills he hopes to impart on his students, including expertise in leading conversations on difficult topics, the ability to translate complex ideas and make them more digestible, and proficiency in writing and thinking. He noted that he finds advising to be harder than teaching given the difficulty of meeting with a large number of students one-on-one.
Sager acknowledged the challenging nature of having conversations about the future of students’ careers and explained the importance of students feeling comfortable in her Career Works office. In this regard, she acknowledged that she learns a lot from working with students and values when students make time to visit her just for the sake of catching up. Her enthusiasm was best exemplified by the fact that she described her work as her calling.
After the awards were awarded and the speeches were spoken, attendees devoted themselves to mingling in the lounge. Professors formed small groups of casual discussion that students lingered around to listen in on. Leftover catering was given away to those who remained after the main event was over.
Featured image: Oliver Idizowski’28
Leave a Reply