Unique application of technology, dedication, guidance and respect for students are just some of the attributes of this year’s Bender Teaching Award recipients.
Endowed by friend of the University Morton Bender and GW, each award provides a $500 prize to be used by the recipient for faculty development activities, such as travel to professional meetings or the purchase of equipment and materials to be used for teaching. The recipients are selected by a committee of faculty each year based on letters of support from students and faculty, student teaching evaluations, and examples of teaching materials and completed student work.
“GW seeks to offer the highest possible level of academic challenge and engagement to our students,” says Donald R. Lehman, executive vice president for academic affairs. “By recognizing outstanding professors – those who exceed expectations – the Bender Awards encourage true excellence in teaching. It is a pleasure to have this opportunity each year to honor a few of GW’s many fine professors.”
The award winners are: Assistant Professor of Management Tjai Nielsen, Assistant Professor of Health Care Sciences Ellen Costello, Professor of Chemistry David Ramaker, Associate Professor of Health Policy Joel Teitelbaum, and Part-Time Professor of History Christopher Tudda. GW Today will feature the winners in a series.
Dr. Tudda was commended for creating an stimulating intellectual environment in his U.S. diplomacy course for undergraduates despite an 8 a.m. class start time.
Though he was “surprised and really flattered” when he learned of the award, Dr. Tudda says he was even more shocked when he discovered the award was University-wide. “I didn't think that I’d done anything special, just my job,” says Dr. Tudda. “But I’ve learned that being accessible to students has helped me be a better teacher. I vowed 20 years ago that if I ever taught, I’d be a different teacher than some of the ones I had as an undergraduate, who seemed to treat students as an afterthought.”
During the day, Dr. Tudda works as a diplomatic historian at the U.S. State Department, where he researches, declassifies, edits and publishes official U.S. foreign relations documents. Twice a week, he teaches his class before work and then returns to GW to hold office hours in the evening.
In the nomination, colleagues praised Dr. Tudda for accommodating his students in and outside the classroom and for his innovative teaching style. “[Dr. Tudda] lets each student be his or her own ‘history detective’ as they recreate the circumstances surrounding the making of the foreign policy decisions that shaped the modern world,” one faculty member wrote.
Students echoed these praises, remarking that Dr. Tudda was “accessible,” “engaging” and “exceptionally knowledgeable.” One commented, “It is a true skill to be able to make a large class feel individualized to each person, and I know this must take a great deal of his personal time. He even makes a real effort to know people’s names and use them when calling on them in class. This may be a small thing, but it does make all the difference in making students feel like they matter.”
Dr. Tudda says his class resembles a “larger, seminar-type graduate class” with a lot of reading, participation and writing— and attendance is “great.” “My students are enthusiastic, really want to learn, and are also very interested in pursuing either graduate school study or government careers, so their interests mirror mine,” he says. “I can't emphasize enough how proud I am of their accomplishments.”