Mount Allison English professor receives 3M Fellowship —one of 10 national recipients!
2008-02-07 14:57:39
SACKVILLE, NB — Mount Allison University English professor and performer extraordinaire Dr. Robert Lapp has been honoured as a 2008 National 3M Teaching Fellow. Only ten fellowships are presented each year across the country and Dr. Lapp is one of two New Brunswick professors to receive the prestigious award for 2008. This means that 20 per cent of the winners of this coveted award came from New Brunswick this year. Mount Allison, with four 3M Fellows to date, has earned 20 per cent of the awards given to teachers in the Maritimes provinces since the inception of the award.
Dr. Robert Lapp says, “It’s an honour to receive such a prestigious award for something I love to do — teach. Mount Allison has an exceptional support network for teachers on campus through the Purdy Crawford Teaching Centre and its director Eileen Herteis.”
Mount Allison Vice-President, Academic and Research, Dr. Stephen McClatchie, says, “Dr. Lapp’s award builds on the tradition of 3M Fellows at Mount Allison — one of the best records in the Maritimes. Mount Allison’s Modern Languages and Literatures professor emeritus and director of Tintamarre Alex Fancy, physics professor Dr. Robert Hawkes, and Dean of Social Sciences and geography professor Dr. Rob Summerby-Murray have all been awarded 3M Fellowships. On behalf of the entire Mount Allison community, I congratulate Robert on this latest achievement and applaud the superb teaching he is doing.”
According to a former student, Dr. Robert Lapp doesn’t just teach, he “dances!” And his enthusiasm spreads to his students and colleagues. An expert in eighteenth and nineteenth century literature, Dr. Lapp draws students to his classes and his creative performances. Audiences fill local auditoriums when he and a colleague, professor emerita Dr. Janet Hammock, weave music and poetry into interdisciplinary events. Dr. Lapp has also performed in many events and recitals in Sackville and participated in the 2007 Northrop Frye Literary Festival in Moncton.
Reaching out to the community, Dr. Lapp leads initiatives to enhance links between Mount Allison’s English department and local schools. He models for both his current and future students what teaching dedication really means. For Robert, being a teacher really means realizing that there are “no answers, only better phrasings of the question.” He knows that exploration is at the heart of learning.
Dr. Lapp has received many University and regional awards prior to being named a 3M Fellow. In 2003, he received Mount Allison’s Herbert and Leota Tucker Teaching Award. The Award is Mount Allison’s most prestigious and only campus-wide teaching award. He also received the Association of Atlantic Universities’ Distinguished Teacher Award, a regional award that encompasses all 17 universities in Atlantic Canada and the West Indies that year. In 2005 Dr. Lapp was recognized with the J.E.A. Crake Award in the Faculty of Arts, a peer-adjudicated award recognizing excellence in teaching and scholarly teaching at Mount Allison. Robert also personifies educational leadership and engagement through his influential workshops and mentorship at Mount Allison: “He has changed the way I teach,” says one colleague.
His nominator describes Robert as a “gem” that sparkles with joy, gleams with excitement for his discipline, and radiates generosity: “Stand beside Robert and you bask in the reflected glow.”
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About the 3M Teaching Fellowship Awards
In 1986 3M Canada Company joined STLHE (Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education) to co-sponsor the 3M Teaching Fellowships. Up to ten Fellowships are presented each year to recognize both teaching excellence and educational leadership.
The award includes a lifetime membership in STLHE, a citation, and an invitation to participate in a three-day retreat in Quebec. This retreat provides the winners with an opportunity to share past teaching experiences and discuss new ideas. Colleagues typically submit nominations for the Fellowships.
Today, 3M Teaching Fellows throughout Canada represent a broad range of disciplines and work collaboratively to enhance teaching and learning at their own institutions and through larger initiatives supported by the Society. They also work collectively through the Council of 3M Teaching Fellows advocating policies and initiatives to enhance teaching and learning in Canadian Universities (www.mcmaster.ca/stlhe/3M.council).