Two of the College's faculty were honored with Excellence in Teaching Awards during the UND's annual Founders Day celebration, Feb. 28. Dr. Mark Guy, associate professor of Teaching and Learning received the UND Foundation Award for Individual Excellence in Teaching.

Professor Jeffrey Sun, assistant professor in Educational Leadership received the UND Foundation/Lydia and Arthur Saiki Prize for Graduate or Professional Teaching Excellence

The UND Foundation Award for Individual Excellence in Teaching
Mark Guy
Associate Professor of Teaching and Learning

Dr. Mark Guy makes sure his students are well prepared. He genuinely cares about them and takes any questions and comments they have seriously.

“Dr. Guy is an excellent teacher and has a good rapport with students,” said Glenn Olsen, professor and chair of the Teaching and Learning Department. “He is a very dedicated and enthusiastic teacher who brings his personal and professional experiences to the classroom.”

He also has shown no fear when it comes to using technology and sharing that knowledge with his students.

“He was one of the first faculty members in our department to embrace the use of technology in the classroom,” Olsen said. “His activities not only demonstrate his positive use of technology, but he also shows students how they could use technology in their future elementary classrooms. However, he did not just tell or show them technology, he required their use of it, and he was very patient with the undergraduates as they gained experience in using technology.”

Mark's students appreciate his openness and his ability to offer sound advice. He is living proof of how rewarding a career in teaching can be.

“Dr. Mark Guy has been one of the most influential professors I have had here at UND,” said Alyson Leighton. “He has been the best part of this last semester we are in classes before going into the field to complete student teaching. I feel confident that with the guidance Dr. Guy has supplied, and will continue to supply, we will all excel in the field of science while in the classroom. Dr. Guy's enthusiasm for the subject of science, as well as for teaching, has demonstrated to me that teaching is an extremely rewarding profession. I feel fortunate to have had Dr. Guy as a professor.”

A long list of others expressed the same feeling.

“He is the type of teacher who will pose a question and encourage his students to find the answers themselves,” said Kristen Nabben. “We learned through experience. Dr. Guy's tactics encouraged both risk and ownership. We spent our time in his classroom questioning, experimenting, and finding our identities as science teachers.”

Mark also made sure he knew his students.

“Within the first couple of weeks of school, every student in our team was given the opportunity to have a one-on-one conversation with Dr. Guy,” Nabben said. “In all my years in school, I don't know that anyone has ever taken the initiative to try to communicate with me and get to know me the way that Dr. Guy did.”

“Upon reflection of my undergraduate career at the University of North Dakota, no professor has made more of an impact on my teaching career than Dr. Mark Guy,” said Lacey Paulus, a special education resident teacher in Bismarck .

The UND Foundation/Lydia and Arthur Saiki Prize for Graduate or Professional Teaching Excellence
Jeffrey Sun
Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership

Jeffrey Sun's commitment to excellence in teaching has served as an inspiration to others and led his students to heights they hadn't previously thought possible.

“As a third-year law student, I had the good fortune of being enrolled in Professor Sun's Higher Education Law and Readings in Educational Leadership course,” said Joseph Flanders. “From the beginning of the course until the end, the time and effort Professor Sun put into teaching was above and beyond what I had experienced in three years as a law student. His rapport with the professional doctoral students was obvious, and this relationship helped create a dynamic give-and-take learning environment which fostered superior graduate-level learning.”

While sometimes students can wonder why particular reading assignments are made, this isn't the case in Jeffrey's classes. The materials Jeffrey assigns for reading are always a part of the classroom learning as well.

And Jeffrey goes beyond just what is expected of him in the classroom.

“…Professor Sun is always available outside of the classroom for questions about the course or discussion about the final term paper,” Flanders said.

He also shows enthusiasm for student's work and inspires confidence in their abilities to do graduate-level research. In addition, he encourages students to submit their papers for publication. Flanders was one of those students.

“My paper was ultimately accepted and I was invited to present my research…in Athens , Georgia ,” Flanders said. “Furthermore, Professor Sun offered, without my asking, to continue to work with me after I had graduated from law school on revisions and edits of my paper during the summer of 2007. I have no doubt that it was due to Professor Sun's guidance that I was able to have my paper again accepted for publication by the Notre Dame Journal of College and University Law…. To be published in a peer-reviewed journal at this point in my career is beyond my most ambitious expectations, and without Professor Sun's help, I doubt whether it would have been possible. It cannot be overstated to say that Professor Sun has helped my professional career more than any other graduate-level teacher I have ever worked with.”

Flanders isn't alone in his assessment.

“There are few individuals who have impacted my professional life and learning the way Mr. Sun has,” said Mary Ward, an ABD graduate student. “His encouragement and affirmation kept me going after that first semester when I questioned whether or not I would continue in the program. He allowed me to see something in myself that no other instructor to that point had. He gave me confidence for each semester, through his careful editing of writing assignments, his emails and phone calls checking in to see if there was anything he could help me with and continued to prod and encourage me to keep at it and get that dissertation done. Jeff is someone I seek to emulate as I pursue my career in higher education.”