Northern Oklahoma College faculty Cathy Ballard, DeLisa Ging, and Matt Bolz were named Best NOC Faculty for 2022 at the employee service awards meeting last Friday in Tonkawa.
Ballard is a math instructor at Tonkawa, Bolz is an agriculture/biological science instructor at Enid while Ging is a language arts instructor at Enid.
Candidates were chosen based on student comments through campus surveys.
Vice President for Academic Affairs Diana Watkins said that though these three faculty were recognized, other faculty received positive comments from students.
“We’re fortunate to have outstanding faculty and staff at Northern,” Watkins said. “Our students responded to the survey concerning who had helped them learn the best at NOC by saying wonderful things about almost everyone who teaches a course. “
The following were listed as Excellence of Education Awards for Adjuncts: Jamie McCallum (Agriculture and Biological Science), Enid; Kathy Allison (Engineering, Physical Sciences, and Process Technology), Tonkawa; Suzanne Sumpter (Fine Arts), Tonkawa; Chris Gerber (Health, Physical Education, and Recreation), Enid; Kitty King (Language Arts), Enid; David McCaslin (Mathematics), Stillwater; Jonie Johnson (Nursing), Enid.
The following are students comments regarding the three winners:
Cathy Ballard
*Mrs. Ballard truly cares about her students. I’ve been lucky enough to be in two of her courses now. She never lets a bad day affect how she interacts with her classes. Her notes and practice problems seem clear and tailored to the idea of learning concepts, rather than copying down tiny messy numbers. A few years ago, during my freshman year, I failed Statistics, withdrew from my retake, and shortly after dropped out. Since I returned to college last year, I’ve managed to maintain a 4.0 GPA for two semesters now. This is something I never thought was possible for me.
*She showed how much she actually cared about the students and that we were more to her than just a class of students.
*She puts maximum effort to keep smiles on our faces, to teach us and she’s been doing an amazing job.
DeLisa Ging
*She had so much patience and was always ready to help anyone that needed her. I’m not the normal college student and just started school at the age 46. After not doing well on my ACT test, I was scared. She would help me any day or night. She taught me skills to help with my schoolwork, and I believe if it wasn’t for her time, teaching, and overall being an amazing person, I would not have a 4.0. She is very passionate about her job, she explains very well how to do any of the assignments. *She is also very fast at replying back and grading. Her feedback for the essays is also very helpful because she’s very detailed on what needs to be fixed and she is always very kind anytime I need to get ahold of her.
*I have never had a teacher that wanted me to pass the class so bad. She was so helpful and you could tell she loves teaching. Her mood would always put me in a good mood. I never thought I would look forward for a class in my life but I found myself looking forward to it. She teaches so well and helps so much. I never had an enthusiastic, supportive and friendly teacher like her.
Matt Bolz
*He explains things very thoroughly and never makes you feel dumb for not knowing something. He also has a great since of humor so it makes college classes more bearable.
*He was very passionate with everything he taught so we learned better because he was able to explain how the human body works in terms that made it easy to learn and he also related material with everyday life. He always made sure that we were understanding what he taught. He made class fun by integrating everyday life with the material so I always looked forward for his class. You can tell that he truly cares for his students so I believe that makes all the difference in the world.
*He was super patient with our class and if we had a question he would answer it with no hesitation or smart remark like the other teachers. He definitely makes learning more interesting he’s very understanding. Lastly his nerdy science jokes are the coolest.