HART Professor Wins 5th TEA Award

Wayne Young, MC's heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration technology guru, has been awarded the prestigious TEA Award for Technical Studies. Midland College bestows its Teaching Excellence Award for exceptional performance based on peer nominations and review.
The honor earned him a trip to the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) conference in Austin in May. The University of Texas hosts the annual event.
It will be Young's fifth trip to NISOD and the seventh time he's received a medal or honorarium for teaching - an impressive record for someone whose early career plans didn't include becoming a teacher.
Young was introduced to air conditioning and refrigeration while in the Navy, which included "two expense paid tours of Southeast Asia and the Orient." After discharge, he attended South Plains College in Levelland, where he received a technical certificate in 1974. He worked in Pecos until 1976, when his professor at South Plains called to see if he'd be interested in teaching.
"I assumed he'd gotten me confused with another of his ex-students," said Young, "but I went for the interview anyway." He was hired, and it didn't take him long to discover he'd found his calling. "I realized that I learned more teaching than I'd ever learned as a student, and it just worked for me - I really enjoyed sharing the knowledge."
He taught at South Plains for four years, during which time he completed his associate degree in applied science from South Plains and his B.S. in occupational education from Wayland Baptist University. He started MC's HART program in 1980.
A leader in the professional associations that support the industry, Young is currently in his sixth year as the secretary/treasurer for the Permian Basin chapter of the Refrigeration Service Engineer Society (RSES). He has served in all the offices of the local chapter and Region 10 at some point or another. He completed his tenure as president of RSES Region 10 a year ago and is now deputy director. He sits on the board of the local Texas Air Conditioning Contractors Association (TACCA) chapter. Young is also a proctor for EPA and NATE exams.
Young was one of 15 HART instructors selected to write curriculum and establish standard course descriptions for the Workforce Education Course Manual. He currently serves on the WECM Maintenance Committee.
According to part-time instructor Fred Martin, "He loves teaching. He believes he'll be successful when each and every one of his students succeeds. He makes an extra effort not to let anyone fall through the cracks."