From the
Heights
By Lanetta Williams ‘04
From the
Heights
9
t almost proved too much when she
heard her name announced. “I was really stunned and overwhelmed. I didn’t
expect it at all,” Lana Taylor, associate
professor of mathematics, said about realizing that she had received the Sister Eileen
K. Rice Award for Outstanding Teaching at
the spring Honors Convocation in Adrian.
Suddenly everything she had worked so
hard for made sense.
Adrian area. “I interviewed at a few other
places. Thank God I didn’t get them” before
accepting SHU’s offer, Taylor said.
Arriving at Siena, she found a math program
that had been unchanged for quite awhile.
“We changed the classes step-by-step,”
Taylor said, and math classes today are
quite different.
Perhaps, the greatest change to sweep
through the SHU math department involved
Taylor is “a model of lifelong learning” the use of better technology. Many classwith the “grace and flair of a skillful chore- rooms are filled with computers and graphographer,” academic dean Sharon Weber, ing calculators are a requirement in most
OP said in presenting the award. The classes. Taylor thinks she and other instructor have been able
math instructor
makes “numto better reach stubers dance” and “Taylor is a model of lifelong
dents with the techis known for learning with the grace and flair
nology.
“transmitting
“All students learn
and nurturing of a skillful choreographer.”
differently, and it is
this passion for
Sharon Weber, OP , Academic Dean
important that we
math,” Weber
accommodate them.
said.
The use of graphing
Taylor said she couldn’t believe she had calculators has helped students a lot,” Taylor
received the award. After all, she thought said. By using graphing calculators many
she was an ordinary math teacher. However, difficult steps have been eliminated allowit takes a more than an ordinary teacher to ing students to focus on the problem itself.
receive the Award for Outstanding Teaching.
“Siena gives you the freedom to be diverse
“It is a great honor and I thank you from
in your teaching strategies,” she said. “Tim
the bottom of my heart,” Taylor said when
Husband (professor of mathematics and proaccepting the award.
gram coordinator of mathematics) has been
Over the past 16 years, Taylor, or “Lana” a real role model, always encouraging
as most of her students call her, has taught and supportive, making suggestions
many students at Siena Heights. She has but not demanding things.”
tried to guide them while inspiring young
Taylor said she still doesn’t quite
minds to think hard and figure out the probfeel like she deserves the teachlems that plague them. “Come on, you can
ing award recognition. “The
do it, you can figure it out,” she’d say when
mission of Siena Heights is
students couldn’t get past a problem.
a profound one that is very
Taylor, of Morenci, started her teaching difficult to live up to,” she
career soon after graduating from college. said; then joked, “Some
She taught high school briefly before having days I do.” But
children and becoming a stay-at-home mom. many people
Several years later, she decided to return to b e l i e v e
her first love, teaching! She obtained her T a y l o r
MA in mathematics, was recertified in 1984 d o e s
and began seeking job opportunities in the d e -
serve this honor since the method of selection is democratic: The students she teaches
and the co-workers she interacts with decided who would receive the award.
“It’s like winning the Academy Award for
teaching,” Taylor said.
Siena’s “Academy Award” was originally
named the Outstanding Teaching Award and
was first awarded to education professor Eileen Rice, OP. Following her death in 1994,
the award was renamed the Sister Eileen
K. Rice Award for Outstanding Teaching.
Each spring, students and faculty nominate
professors they think are deserving of the
honor.
“I get this feeling that now that I’ve been
recognized my students will expect something, which puts a little pressure on me,”
Taylor said.
But it’s a pressure that many figure she can
handle.■