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<\/p>\nBy Marcus Smith ’27, Student Correspondent<\/p>\n
The University of Scranton\u2019s professors are renowned for their ability to connect with their students on both an academic and personal level, a quality exemplified by Kim Pavlick, Ph.D., whose efforts won her recognition from her students.<\/p>\n
Student members of the University\u2019s chapter of Alpha Sigma Nu, the national honor society for students in Jesuit colleges and universities, selected Dr. Pavlick as their Teacher of the Year. Formally known as the Gannon Award for Teaching, the award is named for Edward Gannon, S.J., a 22-year employee of the University who taught philosophy until his death in 1986.<\/p>\n
Dr. Pavlick, who was hired at Scranton in 2005 and is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Media, was presented the award at a ceremony on Sunday, March 8, at the Alpha Sigma Nu Honor Society Induction Ceremony. There, she was praised as \u201ccommitted to helping her students grow both inside and outside the classroom\u201d by one student nominator.<\/p>\n
When she learned that she had been chosen to receive the Teacher of the Year award, Dr. Pavlick said she was \u201cabsolutely gobsmacked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI see who gets it every year and they’re smart, fabulous human beings and I think that’s so well-deserved. I’ve always admired everyone who’s been selected,\u201d Dr. Pavlick said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She also said that it is \u201cthe honor of my career that students would give me this type of award, and a lot of them said it was because I encourage critical thinking in my classes.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her classes, Dr. Pavlick tries to be up-to-date with current trends in education and pop culture, something that she always finds herself working to stay on top of.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s exciting to me to learn new material to teach students. I always try to be on the cutting edge. I’m always taking classes and webinars and getting certificates so that I can always bring something new into classes,\u201d she said. \u201cRight now, I’ve been working the last two years on ethical AI use, particularly in the field of communications \u2026 and I have now added ethics into all of my classes.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also serves as the NCAA faculty representative for Scranton\u2019s student-athletes and faculty mentor for the University\u2019s field hockey team, making her presence outside the classroom just as impactful as her teaching.<\/p>\n
She describes herself as a mediator between the student-athletes and their professors in her capacity as the NCAA faculty representative.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love working with all students, and I love supporting all the student-athletes. I try to support them on the field, track or court, but particularly in the classroom. For example, I proctor exams for them remotely when they are playing away games,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
Dr. Pavlick\u2019s abilities to care for her students were also praised by Grace DiCarlo \u201927, a marketing and public relations major from Boonton, New Jersey.<\/p>\n
DiCarlo said Dr. Pavlick\u2019s involvement with students stood out the most during the classes she has taken under Dr. Pavlick.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe really wants all of her students to succeed and she does that by going around the room, giving active feedback as we are doing work,” DiCarlo said. “She’s easily accessible. You can find her anytime and you can talk about whatever you want with her.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Marcus Smith ’27, Student Correspondent The University of Scranton\u2019s professors are renowned for their ability to connect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[75676,12764,75677,2341,178,180,179,274],"class_list":{"0":"post-168055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-alpha-sigma-nu","9":"tag-communications","10":"tag-jesuit-honor-society","11":"tag-media","12":"tag-scranton","13":"tag-scranton-headlines","14":"tag-scranton-news","15":"tag-the-university-of-scranton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}