YSU Professor to get award for teaching

This is the first time a YSU professor has received the award.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- When explaining why she continues teaching at Youngstown State University after 14 years, Dr. Sherry Linkon refers to a recent lunch.
She'd met with a former student, a graduate of Case Western Reserve University law school in Cleveland.
He told her how he'd been nervous when he stepped into his first classes at Case, but soon became confident when he realized how well his undergraduate courses had prepared him.
"I can list 25 or 30 students over the course of the last 10 years whose lives I'm pretty sure I made a difference in," Linkon said. "That's good. That's what we're here for."
What she'll receive
Linkon, a native of Denver, is in Washington, D.C., today, where she'll be honored as the 2003 Ohio Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.
The program recognizes a dedication to teaching and commitment to students at the undergraduate level. This is the first time a YSU professor has received the award; Linkon was selected from educators at 178 colleges and universities in the state, said Walt Ulbricht, YSU's executive director of marketing and communications.
"Most of my research doesn't make a difference in anybody's life," Linkon said. "But when I go into a classroom, I have the opportunity to affect 25, 30 ... 40 people. ... Maybe I touch five of them. If I'm doing that, semester after semester for 15 years, I'm reaching a lot of lives."
Besides being and English professor, Linkon is co-director of YSU's internationally known Center for Working-Class Studies and coordinator of American Studies at the university. She's taught courses to workers in steel plants and recently began an online course. She has published articles and books, including "Steeltown USA" with YSU's Dr. John Russo, and is involved in various projects in the community.
Sticking with YSU
Despite being courted by other universities, Linkon said she remains with YSU because it is a place that truly emphasizes education. While many institutions say teaching is their mission, they "don't really mean it," Linkon said, focusing instead on research or athletics.
"YSU really means it," she said.
Linkon said she decided to become a professor when she worked in a drugstore during her junior and senior years of college. Every day, she said, the same people came to the store to buy a newspaper and candy bar and, every day, she said 'hello' and they looked at her as if they'd never seen her before.
At that point she realized she wanted to do something to "make a difference in the world," she said
As part of making that difference, Linkon gets to know her classes, by setting up 15-minute meetings with each student at the beginning of every semester. She asks them about life, other courses they're taking, where they live and what family members think about their decision to go to college.
They bring in life experiences she finds useful and draws upon in class.
View on students
"They're a great resource and I have a good time with them," she said. "They're engaged in a personal way I find really moving. They just blow me away."
Linkon describes herself as a "hands-on" teacher, with classes that include discussion and assignments that require students to apply coursework to a problem or question. She never gives exams -- her goal is not to teach specific facts but to teach students to think, solve problems and how to wrestle with ideas in the world.
Linkon said she was "very flattered and very excited" to hear she'd won the award, based on letters written by colleagues and also by students.
But, if they have good things to say about her, the feelings are mutual.
"I love YSU students," she said. "I like the way they come into the classroom with a sense of energy, a sense of having battled to be there.
"They're very thoughtful about why they're here, and they're thoughtful in complex ways."