Aired November 16, 2006
Community colleges enroll almost half of all U.S. undergraduates, and they serve disproportionately high numbers of students of color, as well as first-generation, low-income, and adult students. That can create enormous challenges for teachers. This year, two Tri-C professors are being honored by the Carnegie Foundation for meeting that challenge. It's the first time two professors from the same school in the same year have received the award. ideastream's Lisa Ann Pinkerton has the story.
 Dr. Mark Lewine, Community College Professor of the Year, Head of Anthropology at Cuyahoga Community College |
Dr. Mark Lewine's classroom isn't much to speak of - it's small and sparse, with stark white cinder block walls and a single tiny window hidden in a corner. But what this room lacks in inspiration, Lewine more than makes up for, with what his Anthropology students call "contagious passion," "dedication," and "commitment."
Sophomore Alex Crawl says Dr. Lewine is a professor who makes active learners out of his students.
Alex Crawl: When you're in another class with another professor, they more just want you to eat the knowledge and regurgitate it on the test. And Professor Lewine really wants you to take it in, to understand it, and know it and when you leave, (to) be able to apply it.
Lewine is head of the Anthropology Department at Cuyahoga Community College, where he's spent his entire 36-year career. And he's 2006's Community College Professor of the Year. He's receiving one of four national "Professor of the Year" awards given out annually by the Carnegie Foundation. He's being honored for his involvement with his students, approach to learning and contribution to the overall education at Tri-C. He says in each of his classes he aims to break down complex ideas, like cuts of meat, until their small enough for students to digest. Sometimes he says he has to go one-on- one to do this.
Mark Lewine: When they're confused you can see it, break it down into smaller parts, and then they manage it go on to the next. And somewhere in that process the "a-ha!" comes. And that's what you live for.
 Dr. Ormond Brathwaite, Ohio Professor of the Year, Professor of Chemistry at Cuyahoga Community College |
At Tri-C's eastern campus, another professor is striving to make complex ideas palatable to his students. Dr. Ormond Brathwaite, who's receiving the state Professor of the Year award this year, says many of his students show up to his Chemistry classes with negative opinions of science. So sophomore Malik Sharif says it really helps when Brathwaite teaches chemistry in everyday examples before he uses scientific terms.
Malik Sharif: He relates it to the paint on his house, and rust on his car, and he makes it organic. So for me, that made it that much more approachable.
Brathwaite is a native of Barbados and has taught at Tri-C for the past 13 years. He, like Lewine, also makes time for individual instruction no matter what the time of day. He says once he allowed a student to study on the floor of his office everyday, because that's where the student felt most comfortable.
Ormond Brathwaite: I should be committed if the student is that committed. Myself, as the professor - how could I not be?
Brathwaite says he routinely requires students to participate in scientific conferences, which reinforces their classroom knowledge and instills confidence in their own scientific ideas. Bio Medical major, Tashara Banks says after such events, Brathwaite never forgets to follow up.
Tashara Banks: What did you go to? What did you hear? What did you learn while you were there? What stuck with you? And I've very appreciative of that.
Above all the students of both Dr. Mark Lewine and Dr. Ormond Brathwaite say it's the dedication these teachers have for there students that makes them so extraordinary. The Professor of the Year awards will be held in Washington D.C. later today. Lisa Ann Pinkerton, 90.3.