Virginia Wesleyan College

In this issue :

 

For their excellence in teaching and scholarship and their passion for inspiring excellence in others.

Karen A. Bosch, Ph.D.

Professor of education and coordinator of the Education Department

“I work with conviction and energy, and I am committed to making a difference in the teaching life of our education students.”

Made program innovations including the addition of a Special Education Program and the offering of in-service courses for area public school teachers. Currently serving as at-large delegate for Private Colleges for the Virginia Association of Colleges of Teacher Education

Clayton J. Drees, Ph.D.

Professor of history and coordinator of the History Department

“I love teaching so much, I’d do it for free if I could find another way to keep body and soul together.”

Recipient of the 1998 Samuel Nelson Gray Distinguished Teaching Award; television commentator for the Learning Channel series, Passion of the Saints

Steven Emmanuel, Ph.D.

Professor of philosophy

“My approach to teaching can be summed up in a lovely observation by the Chinese painter Lu Ch’ai, who wrote: ‘The end of all method is to seem to have no method.’”

Statewide coordinator for the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges Ethics Bowl Program

*Kathy Merlock Jackson, Ph.D., professor of communications and coordinator of the Communications Department

“As a child growing up in an Italian-Polish neighborhood in Pittsburgh, I saw media as my windows on the world. I’ve always been fascinated by what they mean and what they teach us about American culture.”

*2004 Recipient of the Frank H. and Jane P. Batten Distinguished Scholar Award and 1989 Samuel Nelson Gray Distinguished Teaching Award; co-editor of The Journal of American Culture

William M. Jones, Ph.D., professor of political science

“I teach to nurture my students’ inner vision – to see politics and culture with mind and heart and soul together.”

Coordinator of the International Studies major, co-editor of The Journal of American Culture; host of the FirstLook Film Forum and moderator for other film series at the NARO Expanded Cinema and elsewhere

Paul M. Resslar, Ph.D., professor of biology and coordinator of the Biology Department

“I had no choice in the matter. I was born a botanist. As long as I can remember, I have been interested in plants.”

Currently conducting research in vitro propagation and breeding of species Araceae, tribe Caladieae and inducing some aroids that typically do not flower to bloom. Curator of the VWC Greenhouse for 20 years

Theodore M. Vial, Jr., Ph.D., associate professor of religious studies and director of Honors & Scholars

“I went into religious studies because it became clear to me that religion has shaped not only our world, but the very ideas and language we use to try to figure that world out.”

Recipient of the 2001 Samuel Nelson Gray Distinguished Teaching Award; publishes extensively in the field of theoretical ways to explain religion, especially cognitive science and religion.

 

Craig S. Wansink, Ph.D., professor of religious studies and coordinator of the Religious Studies Department

“My strongest teachers modeled intellectual curiosity, discipline, respect, enthusiasm and appreciation of community. I hope that I do the same, both inside and outside of the classroom.”

Parish associate minister at Second Presbyterian Church; serves as chair of the Academic Affairs Committee on the Board of Trustees at Morningside College

2004 Samuel Nelson Grey Distinguished Teaching Award Recipient

 

Susan Wansink, Ph.D., professor of German and French

“Learning foreign languages is much more than just conjugating verbs, becoming familiar with other cultures, and developing empirical skills; it’s the key to sensitivity to perspective and, ultimately, to communication, in both the other language and our own.”

* 2004 Batten Scholar