Courtney Meyers is an award-winning associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Education and Communications.
Courtney Meyers
Courtney Meyers' family is full of teachers, from her parents to her twin sister, aunts, an uncle and cousins. You could say teaching is in her blood.
So it should be no surprise that Meyers, an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Education & Communications at Texas Tech University, excels at her profession.
“I have an ingrained passion for teaching,” Meyers said. “As a professor, I have many responsibilities, but teaching is the part of my job I enjoy the most.”
Her passion for her profession was recognized Sunday (Nov. 15) when she was honored by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities with the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Agriculture Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award in the “new teacher” category.
Meyers was honored during an awards ceremony at the APLU's annual meeting in Indianapolis, receiving a $2,000 award designated for use in supporting and strengthening instructional programs in the area of her choosing.
“Receiving this award is a wonderful recognition that the time and effort I dedicate to teaching is appreciated,” Meyers said. “I am grateful the College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources supported my nomination for the award, and I consider myself blessed to work with so many talented students and colleagues.”
The new teacher award is presented to a professor who has seven or fewer years of experience at the collegiate level, with two teachers chosen each year from a large pool of candidates from across the country. Candidates are selected from four regions of the U.S. based on their commitment to a career in teaching, and they must exhibit meritorious service in the teaching profession.
Meyers said her application was evaluated based on teaching quality assessment, teaching philosophy statement, service to the profession, professional growth and scholarly activity and service to students.
Her teaching quality assessment included teaching assignments, awards, student/peer evaluations and innovative approaches. Service to the profession was judged on organizing or leading teaching improvement workshops, mentoring faculty and graduate students, grants received, publications and presentations. Personal growth included professional development, scholarly work and research awards, while student service was based on advising student organizations, advising graduate students and student-centered service activities.
A member of the faculty since 2008, Meyers is the co-sponsor of the Texas Tech chapter of Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow. She has won numerous awards for research papers from the Journal of Applied Communications, the Association for Communication Excellence, the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists' Agricultural Communications outstanding paper and the SAERC outstanding innovative idea poster.
“The APLU Excellence in Teaching Award is an extremely competitive national award that is one of the highest honors a faculty member can achieve in the agricultural and natural resources disciplines,” said Michael Galyean, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources. “This award adds to an already long list of Courtney's accomplishments in teaching, and it reflects the fact that she excels in all aspects of her position – teaching, research, and service. CASNR is very fortunate to have someone of her caliber as a member of its faculty.”
Meyers felt her application to the award represented an overarching dedication to teaching excellence and the student and peer review comments demonstrated the impact she desires to have in teaching.
“This award has encouraged me to continue my efforts inside and outside the classroom to help my students become talented agricultural communicators,” Meyers said.