Daniel Carter was honored with the Overall Teacher Award during the Student’s Distinguished Teacher Awards Monday evening.

“One of my greatest fears is having a student come to my class and not be inspired and not be motivated,” said Carter, an instructor in the early childhood, elementary and middle level education department.

Carter is a former graduate of Eastern and taught the fifth and sixth grade before moving into an administrative position.

After deciding to return to the classroom, he came back to Eastern to teach and is now in his eighth year as a professor.

Three other professors were also acknowledged during the ceremony.

Steve Benner, from the accountancy program, won the “academic support” category; Sally Turner, from the journalism department, won the “academic service” category; and Ryan Hendrickson, from the political science department, won the “academic subject” category.

Forty-four applications were handed in and more than 30 professors were nominated, while four awards were handed out.

Jackie Alexander, student vice president for academic affairs, started this project during winter break. One of her duties is to hold a teacher-student interaction program.

Alexander said the basis for this program came from the “Golden Apple Award” for excellent teachers on a national level, as well as other awards different universities conduct.

“There are awards on this campus that professors and faculty get that students help decide, but there is not an award where only students get to decide, so this kind of gives them the opportunity to,” Alexander said.

This is the first year for the awards, and Alexander said she is looking forward to these awards becoming a yearly event and growing each year.

Lauren Lipine, a senior elementary education major, was one of the six students who nominated Carter for these awards.

“I feel like he really cared about us as a whole and encouraged us to get to know each other to bounce ideas off of each other,” Lipine said. “He encouraged us to pursue the field of education and expand our horizons by trying different techniques with the students and really thinking outside the box.”

Mike Hilty, Student Senate member, also presented awards to the four professors who participated in the Last Lecture Series: Rebecca Merten, Rigo Chinchilla, Lucia Schroeder and Diana Wyatt. The Last Lecture Series took place on April 15.

Kayleigh Zyskowski can be reached at 581-7942 or at kzyskowski@eiu.edu.

Godson Obia, associate dean of college of sciences, congratulates Chris Kromphardt, a senior political sciences major who nominated Ryan Hendrickson, political science professor, in 7th Street Underground Monday. (Kelly Crement/The Daily Eastern News)

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