In this Sept. 3, 2016 file photo, Centralia College professor and beekeeper Susanne Weil checks one of the frames inside her hive at her home in Onalaska.
Pat Pringle
Two Centralia College professors have received The Evergreen State College 2016 Teacher Excellence Awards, according to a press release from the college.
Professors Pat Pringle and Susanne Weil both received the award, which recognizes teachers who have “had significant impact on the lives of students.”
Teachers are nominated by incoming students at The Evergreen State College.
The professors said their nominations were unexpected.
“I’m very surprised, but very pleased,” Weil said in the release. “The student who nominated me was a wonderful, hard-working student in one of my English 102 classes several years ago. I’m delighted she thought to nominate me for this honor.”
Weil earned her doctorate in English literature from the University of California-Berkeley in 1991 and her bachelor’s degree in English and psychology from Swarthmore College in 1980. From 1991 to 2004, she directed the writing program at Whittier College in Southern California. She then moved to Centralia College to serve the mission of making a quality higher education affordable to everyone. She encourages students to build confidence as writers by breaking down projects, whether it is research-based or creative, into doable stages they expand on throughout the quarter, stated the release.
Weil teaches the transfer composition courses English 101 and 102, and a wide array of literature courses, including short fiction, non-western world literature and women’s literature.
Her academic publications have focused on Mark Twain’s literary responses to bankruptcy. Weil’s most recent paper will be anthologized in “Mark Twain and Money,” and will be published by the University of Alabama Press this summer.
Weil also focuses on how women’s work has been represented in literature. She co-edited a critical anthology on the subject in 2011, according to the release.
Her own lifelong learning projects include beekeeping, according to the release. She volunteers as the secretary of the Lewis County and Washington State Beekeepers’ associations and includes demonstration projects on honey bees in her research and argument courses.
Weil won Centralia College’s Exceptional Faculty Award in 2008.
Pringle, who won the college’s Exceptional Faculty Award in 2009, echoed Weil’s sentiments.
“Wow, I’m very grateful to be acknowledged by past students,” he said in the release.
For 11 years, Pringle has taught geosciences at Centralia College . In April, he received the Washington State Association of College Trustees’ 2016 Faculty Member Award for excellence in teaching.
He’s a strong advocate of hands-on learning at Centralia College, according to the release. Pringle integrates field trips and incorporates tree-ring and geologic research exercises and projects into both his classes and his independent research projects.
He’s shared his insights and broad experiences of more than 23 years in geoscience research, science outreach and public information with the students at Centralia College.
Pringle is a leader in regional geosciences, according to the release, providing professional guidance and insight into the exploration and interpretive understanding of some of the region’s natural areas, including Mount St. Helens, Mount Hood and Mount Rainier, among others.
He is widely published, and his work includes the definitive guidebook of the geology of Mount Rainier National Park, “Roadside Geology of Mount Rainier National Park and Vicinity,” for which he received the 2009 Geoscience Information Society’s award for best geological guidebook.
The book details the geologic history of the mountain and its associated features, including the lahar patterns, lava domes and flows, glaciers, caves, lakes and more, according to the release.
