On Jan. 27, NC State professor, Hollylynne Lee, was announced to be the 2022 recipient of Baylor University’s Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching. 

Lee, a professor of mathematics and statistics education in the College of Education, explained how the nomination process for the award works. 

“They accept nominations from different universities, so universities decide which professors they want to nominate,” Lee said. “The Cherry Award committee at Baylor University reviews all these nominations and decides who their finalists are, and awards … one faculty member, an award for great teaching.”

The dean and associate dean of the College of Education contacted Lee in September 2020 and congratulated her on having received the UNC Board of Governors Award for Teaching Excellence.

“They said ‘With your recent award at the UNC level, we think you’d be a great candidate [and] we’d like to nominate you for it,’” Lee said.

After Lee was nominated for the award, she went through the finalist process with three other teachers which consisted of finalist interviews, participating in a discussion and then spending a week at Baylor University. 

“I went to Baylor for five days and I had to teach two of their undergraduate classes while I was there, so I was a guest lecturer in two different classes, and I had to give a public talk,” Lee said. “I met with a gazillion different people during the different days.”

Karen Hollebrands, associate dean for research and innovation for the College of Education, was a part of the team that guided Lee throughout this award process. She said part of her role is to find funding and awards for faculty.

“So, in my position on supporting and promoting the research of our faculty in the College of Education, I also assist in finding funding to help support their work and expand its reach and impact,” Hollebrands said. “Part of my responsibility also is to assist our faculty in finding opportunities for awards to recognize them, not only for their outstanding research but also their outstanding teaching, like the case of Hollylynne Lee.”

Hollebrands said her main responsibility during this process was to collect letters from people outside of the university who could vouch for the great impact she has made throughout her time teaching.

“I helped in requesting those letters from others to be submitted so that we made sure that they were on time,” Hollebrands said. “I had to collect together the types of courses that she taught and provide descriptions of those courses so people could see what those courses entailed.”

She said part of the application process is having all the correct documents collected and put together. Hollebrands said someone could be disqualified because of a page being over the limitations set in place for the award application. 

“Just making sure everything is following the guidelines and the rules that they’ve put forth to make sure that we have a strong and compliant packet [is important],” Hollebrands said.

Upon receiving this award, Lee was given the opportunity to go to Baylor University next spring and teach for a semester.

“I’m really looking forward to getting to know the students [and] the faculty at Baylor and teaching classes that I’ve never taught before and be able to bring those ideas back to NC State,” Lee said.