Young Teacher Award
Elizabeth Ann De Stasio, 1996
"Beth De Stasio, the last time you were on the commencement platform I handed you your Bachelor of Arts diploma, summa cum laude. In the four years since your return as a member of the faculty of your alma mater, you have extended that early promise as a bright example of how the love of your subject and concern for your students can infuse teaching with a special light. Your thoughtful attentiveness to your teaching and your meticulous preparation of your courses provide evidence of your commitment, and the high praise those courses receive from students indicates how effective your efforts have been.
What is most striking about you as a teacher is that you are never content that you have done all you can in any course but introduce new ideas and new approaches to the subject every year. You insist that your students be active learners, and whether by discussion or collaborative laboratory work, you have promoted their full participation in their own educations. Yet students know they can rely on you to help them grasp new concepts, master new information, and relish the exploration of biological science whether they are aspiring biologists or aspiring poets. And you have brought the same fruitful diligence to your teaching of Freshman Studies, for which you have received the outstanding teacher award.
In the laboratory, where you sustain an extraordinary record of collaborative research with students, your accomplishments have won you prestigious recognition from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. And all, remarkably, for your work on a worm. It is hard to someone from outside what you call 'the worm community' to imagine what actually happens at the meetings of the International Worm Congress--perhaps that is best. But even an outsider can understand that your research on the muscle proteins on C. elegans may potentially lead to medical and scientific breakthroughs of immense significance.
For your creative engagement in the enterprise of teaching undergraduates, it is a pleasure to present you with the Young Teacher Award for 1996."