Midland College increases prize for Teaching Excellence Awards following generous endowment from Dr. Stan JacobsNovember 08, 2021

Midland College (MC) will be awarding two professors with Teaching Excellence Awards on Friday, November 19 at 8:30 a.m. in the Scharbauer Student Center Carrasco Room. This year, instead of receiving just a $1,500 prize, each winner will be receiving a $5,000 prize thanks to a generous endowment started by Dr. Stan Jacobs, retired Associate Vice President of Instruction and adjunct art professor.

Teaching Excellence Awards have been given out for more than 25 years at MC. As an administrator, Dr. Jacobs enjoyed announcing and giving out the award. As he celebrates 50 years of teaching and as MC is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2022, Dr. Jacobs decided it was the perfect time to start this endowment. 

“I serve on the Henry Foundation Board, and Jim Henry has a motto, ‘We should be givin’ while we are livin’,” Dr. Jacobs said. “Teaching excellence is important to any institution you feel a part of, and I feel a part of MC. What better investment is there than one in the health of an institution like MC?”

MC has renamed the awards, the Dr. Stan Jacobs Teaching Excellence awards. 

“I have never had anything named after me,” Dr. Jacobs said. “I cannot think of anything better than to have my name on than this. You could say the ‘Stan Jacobs Fine Arts Building;’ that would be nice, but that is bricks and mortar. Teaching excellence is something that lasts forever.”

As he looks back on his life, Dr. Jacobs says he is most proud of his tenure at MC. He never dreamed he would be at MC for 50 years, but as he explains it, the college kept growing and good things kept happening, so he never thought of leaving. 

The Dr. Stan Jacobs Teaching Excellence Awards are a peer-driven award. It is presented to select faculty each year who have made significant contributions to the intellectual life of the college through innovation in the classroom and their commitment to students. Professors interview before a panel of their colleagues, then seven or eight are officially nominated, but only two are selected to receive the top prize--one to represent MC’s academic/transfer programs and one to represent MC’s career/technical education programs. Each will now receive a $5,000 cash honorarium and a plaque. Their names are also permanently displayed in the Pevehouse Administration Building with the names of winners from previous years.