Their ranks include an MSNBC columnist, a member of the National Endowment for the Humanities, a Pulitzer-prize finalist and even a former Penn president. They have written books on subjects ranging from baseball to Tupac Shakur to the AIDS epidemic and have won numerous awards for research, teaching and community involvement.
But only three of these professors will be given the first Spotlight on Teaching Awards, sponsored by the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education.
The new awards are intended to recognize the best lecturers on campus.
Students were asked to select the professors who give the most interesting and enthusiastic lectures in each of three subject areas -- social sciences and Wharton; hard sciences, nursing and engineering; and humanities.
"We wanted to recognize professors who are able to engage students with the material in such a large teaching setting," SCUE chairwoman Ophelia Roman said. "It's a skill to be able to engage 200 people... and make it interesting."
These professors "are doing a great service to the student body," she added.
This past week, 1,084 students voted to choose the winners from among 30 finalists. These finalists were the top vote-getters of the 178 professors nominated by 310 different students.
Many of the finalists commented that teaching awards like this one are important at a university like Penn.
"This is a research environment," Bioethics Professor Glenn McGee said. "You kind of have to have something like this or teaching can get lost in a sea of other activities and entertainment and goals."
Another finalist, Psychology Professor Sharon Thompson-Schill also praised the idea.
She said, "It is very rare that people pat you on the back for a job well done in teaching, especially at a research university. It is always nice to have that acknowledgement."
But professors aren't the only ones who will get something out of the SCUE awards, according to the finalists.
"I think one nice thing about this [is that] it actually allows the students to communicate among themselves about what they think about courses," Biology Professor Gregory Guild said.
"There's a good correlation between the professor's ability to communicate things and make [students] feel excited and the students' appreciation of that course," he added.
Recipients of the awards will be announced early next month, and the winners will be invited to give a lecture on a topic of their choice to the entire student body during Education Week. The SCUE initiative is aimed at promoting educational opportunities at Penn and will be held the week of Jan. 26.
The goal of the lectures, Roman said, is to allow students who have not taken classes with these professors to be exposed to their teaching styles.
"It's really about inspiring students to take educational risks," Roman said. "We hope that after hearing these amazing lectures, students will be inspired to take a course that they might not have otherwise."
Some of the nominees joked about the fact that the winning lecturers will be asked to take on another teaching assignment as their reward.
"I think that's terrifying," McGee said of giving a lecture to the entire student body. "I want to lose." Laughing, he added, "I hope they'll at least throw in a milkshake."
All joking aside, the professors said they think the idea -- which is unique to the Spotlight Awards -- is a good one.
"There [are] a lot of great teachers here, but people don't have exposure to them," said Thompson-Schill, "so the idea to showcase Penn's talent where teaching is concerned I think is a great opportunity."
Students discussed their reasons for nominating professors, citing some lecturers' unique teaching methods, as well as their contagious enthusiasm and seemingly endless wealth of knowledge.
College sophomore Rachel Kohn, who nominated "Introduction to Folklore" teacher Stephen Winick, shared an occasion when "he came out and sang one of his favorite ballads for us."
Physics Professor James Kikkawa is "very into using everyday examples to emphasize his points," College sophomore Emily Kauvar said. According to Kauvar, Kikkawa discussed the television show Fear Factor in one of his classes to illustrate a point about velocity. During that lecture, he showed students how to calculate the best angle to take when jumping from one building to another.
Professors had their own ideas about why they might have been nominated.
"I try to do lots of things" to stimulate student interest, Art History Professor David Brownlee said. "I also work very hard to make the accompanying visual material support [my] argument." He added that students like his class because "it's well-organized and it's got pictures."
McGee said he feels it is important to include useful real-world applications in his lectures.
"I have read nine years [worth] of evaluations of my teaching and worked hard to try to communicate with students in a way that will matter not only for the exam but for ordinary life," he said.
Thompson-Schill added that students are also attracted to professors based on what they do outside of class.
"One thing that students tell me is that they appreciate that I seem concerned about them," she said, and "that I take the time to meet with them individually."
Many other teaching awards are given each year on the Penn campus, including the Senior Teaching Award, also administered by SCUE, and the Lindback Awards for Distinguished Teaching. The highest rated professors are also recognized on the Penn Course Review Web site.
