Congratulations to Dr. Laura Rice: Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

The Paul R. and Joan M. Shellenberger Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching is a huge honor for any teacher here on the Penn State Campus. This award recognizes full time instructors who exhibit excellence in undergraduate teaching and contribute significantly to the education of undergraduate students. We are fortunate enough to have the recipient of this award, Dr. Laura Rice, be in the Agriculture Education and Extension Department who not only teaches undergraduate freshman in the Ag Education 100 level class, but a professor who works one on one with student teacher candidates their senior year and sends them off to go teach!

 To be considered for this award, Dr. Rice was nominated by the staff that is in the Agriculture Extension and Education department. Her nomination packet had to include a letter stating why she should receive the award, a reflective statement about her teaching philosophy, proof and measures of her teaching effectiveness, a list of service to the students and the teaching profession, and ways that she has developed her professional development over the time at Penn State. You could not have picked a better award that would recognize all of Dr. Rice’s accomplishments she has made here!

Dr. Rice states, “I like being a part of our student’s agriculture education journey and igniting their passion for why they want to teach agriculture. It is an awesome feeling seeing the end result, watching our student teachers grow, and seeing the light bulb moment go off.”

Dr. Rice, congratulations on your award and all of your accomplishments! We can’t wait to see what other impacts you make at Penn State and the agriculture community!

To learn more about starting on the path to having a career that makes a positive impact on the lives of students across the globe by becoming an agricultural educator, please contact the agricultural teacher education program at teachag@psu.edu. Follow us on Twitter at TeachAgPSU, on Facebook, or on our blog.