Five Faculty Members Recognized
for Teaching Excellence
Dr. Charles Arokiasamy
By Shirley Melikian Armbruster
Dr. Charles Arokiasamy, who helped develop the Rehabilitation Counseling Program at California State University, Fresno into a Top 20 nationally ranked program, has been awarded the university's top teaching award.
Dr. J. Michael Ortiz, provost and vice president of academic affairs, named Arokiasamy, professor of Counseling and Special Education and coordinator of the Rehabilitation Counseling program, as the 2003 Excellence in Teaching recipient.
The provost also honored the following:
"This year's recipients are exceptional individuals from our excellent faculty," said Ortiz. "It is an honor for me to be able to recognize them from among the many outstanding nominees. Our students and community truly are enriched by their work."
The awards include a stipend of $5,500 for the Excellence in Teaching recipient and $3,000 each to the other four awardees.
Charles Arokiasamy (Excellence in Teaching Award) joined the Fresno State faculty in 1996 as coordinator of the Rehabilitation Counseling program in the Kremen School of Education and Human Development. It has grown from 29 to 90 students since he started. U.S. News & World Report's "Best Graduate Schools 2004" ranked the Rehabilitation Counseling Program at Fresno State at 20th in the country, and seventh among graduate programs not offering doctoral degrees.
Arokiasamy has developed and taught 15 different classes plus a variety of independent study courses, and has conducted more than 100 training workshops on various aspects of rehabilitation and counseling throughout the United States and in Malaysia, Singapore, Portugal and Italy. He is developing three new tracks in Rehabilitation Counseling: bilingual, substance abuse and a research track, which is a pre-doctoral track.
Colleague Diane R. Gehart, and students of the Rehabilitation Counseling program nominated Arokiasamy for the Provost's Award. Gehart said Arokiasamy is "prized" by students in the counseling program. He has "the most remarkable gift in being able to be simultaneously supportive yet challenging, and he uses this to foster intellectual as well as personal growth in his students, and colleagues," she said.
The student recommendation noted: "What he teaches becomes long-term memory because of his teaching style and techniques," the students wrote. "In one class he gave flowers to a student on her birthday and had us debate professional boundaries vs. humane approaches to treatment. Who can forget such lessons?"
Gehart and the students cited Arokiasamy's personal touch and communication, plus his routine of spending long hours at the university, noting that e-mails at 2 a.m. are not unusual.
"Some of us have been in Dr. Arokiasamy's office until midnight tweaking a last-minute proposal or grant or research, and when we leave he continues to work," the students wrote.
Gehart said not only is he hard-working, but productive as well. He has submitted 41 grants, 34 of which were funded for nearly $2.4 million and three of which are pending for $1.75 million. The grants have provided numerous scholarships and internship opportunities for his students. In fact, for several years, all graduate students in the program were on full scholarships.
In recognition of Arokiasamy's accomplishment, Ortiz will purchase a brick in his name for the Teacher's Honor Wall in the Kremen School of Education and Human Development.
Sharon Brown-Welty (Graduate Teaching and Mentoring Award) was lauded in her nomination as "a gifted instructor, a caring and skilled mentor and a highly capable leader" who often goes the "extra mile" for students. Besides her full-time teaching load, she teaches additional classes in certificate programs, supervises students in administrative fieldwork and advises students in the professional administrative credential program. In 1998, she designed a new focus for education administration targeting higher education administrators and personally
recruits and advises each student. Dr. Brown-Welty is the CSU Director of the Joint Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership, and serves as adviser and mentor to the students in the program. Because she believes graduates should continue to do research relative to the Central Valley, she created the Central Valley Education Research Consortium to bring JDPEL graduates back together to continue research in education and disseminate those findings. To date, the consortium has published two monographs and disseminated 3,000 copies of each.
Hye Ok Park (Technology in
Education Award) has worked to introduce and implement new ways to facilitate
effective and innovative use of technologies by faculty and students since
joining the faculty of Fresno State as a librarian in 1991. She automated
the Madden Library's operations, including the online public access catalog
and introduced online e-resources to provide easier and remote access to
research materials. In December 2000 she was assigned to start the Digital
Campus operation of a campus-wide e-learning program and to create a support
unit to provide assistance in online course development and teaching by
the faculty. After just two years, Digital Campus supports more than 550
faculty members and 19,500 students enrolled in more than 900 courses that
are Web-enhanced or Web-based. She secured a $5.25 million federal grant
to support the university's mission of serving rural Hispanic students and
developed the Digital Campus Abroad program, which has participants in Korea
and China and prospects in Thailand and Singapore.
Peggy Trueblood (Faculty
Service Award) joined the faculty of the Physical Therapy Department
in 1995 and in 1997 developed a fall prevention screening and treatment
center for seniors and people with chronic neurological disorders such as
stroke, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis. The Gait, Balance, and
Mobility Center at Fresno State serves more than 40 community residents
and to date has provide free comprehensive balance assessments to more than
500 people. Graduate physical therapy students are involved with the center
in clinical exposure and education, and clinical research studies. She also
developed four Fallproof Balance and Mobility classes at various sites in
the community. She speaks to a variety of community and professional organizations
and teaches general physicians, physical therapists, audiologists, neurologists
and occupational and speech therapists. In addition to teaching, she is
graduate coordinator for the Physical Therapy Department and serves on the
advisory board of the Society for Multiple Sclerosis.
Phyllis Kuehn (Distinguished
Achievement in Research, Scholarship or Creative Activity Award) has
worked extensively with the Joint Doctoral Program and since 1998 she has
assisted doctoral students with their research design and analysis as director
of the doctoral research center. She initiated and co-directs of the Center
for Research, Evaluation, Assessment and Dissemination, which offers research
and evaluation services to schools in the university's service area. Since
coming to Fresno State in 1990, she has authored or co-authored federal
grants that have brought in more than $1.5 million in funding, including
a prestigious National Science Foundation grant. Her own research involves
the study of how minority and under-prepared students who have the basic
aptitude for university study, but lack the academic language skills necessary
to success, can gain access to and successfully compete in universities.
That, said her nominator, is uniquely important to Fresno State and the
Kremen School of Education.
Back to University Journal, 5/03 Issue
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