The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences named the recipients of its 2003-04 Master Teacher awards this month, using a professor’s commitment to multicultural learning as the core for the honors this year.

One of the recipients said she was pleased LAS was making multicultural learning a priority.

Hector Avalos

Dealing with a severe respiratory disease that inhibited his activity, no one thought Hector Avalos would ever stand before a class.

After becoming receiving master’s and doctorate degrees from Harvard University, Avalos went on to do a fellowship at the University of North Carolina.

Avalos came to Iowa State in 1993.

“ISU was one of the few universities that were willing to make accommodations for my illness,” he said.

In 1996, Avalos was named Iowa State’s “Professor of the Year.”

Avalos, associate professor of religious and Latino studies, is being given the LAS Master Teacher Award because of his work as the director of Latino studies where he started many of the classes. He is also the founder of the ISU Atheist and Agnostic Society.

“This award represents Iowa State’s understanding that multicultural issues are essential to college education,” he said.

— Tracy Tucker

Herman Blake

Being recognized as a “master” is small title for a great asset to the ISU community, said John Schuh, professor and chairman of educational leadership and policy studies, of Herman Blake, a recipient of the Master Teacher award.

Schuh has worked with Blake, professor in educational leadership and policy studies, for 15 years and said he is more than worthy of the recognition.

“Without question [Blake] is one of the greatest figures in higher education in the U.S.,” he said.

Schuh first worked with Blake at the University of Indiana at Bloomington, doing research on the college experience. Schuh said he is a tremendous complement to the ISU community.

“To work and conduct research with Blake is the best experience of my life,” he said.

Nancy Evans, professor in educational leadership and policy studies, agreed the recognition is deserved.

“He has a reputation of being a very rigorous teacher — he assigns a significant amount of work to his students, but at the same time is very supportive and helpful to students,” Evans said.

Blake really challenges his students to reach their full potential, she said.

Blake received his bachelor’s degree in sociology from New York University and his master’s and doctorate degrees in sociology from University of California at Berkeley.

— Eric Rowley

Susan Cross

Susan Cross, associate professor of psychology, said she is very honored and surprised by being named a Master Teacher.

The award emphasized multi-cultural teaching, which Cross focuses on in her Psychology 488 class. The class focuses on how people of different cultures behave.

Cross said teaching cultural psychology probably had a part in why she was chosen for the award. She also teaches the last part of the introduction to psychology classes and psychology for women.

“I also do some cross-cultural research,” Cross said.

Cross said that she sees cross-cultural interaction as something very important because everyone will experience it. She said she appreciates that culture and diversity are being recognized.

Cross has been at Iowa State for 10 years. The students in her classes are what makes her job fun, she said.

Cross received her doctorate from the University of Michigan.

— Billie Moorehead

Jacquelyn Litt

Despite being selected for the Master Teacher honor, the interim director of women’s studies said she is only one of dozens who are worthy.

“I’m one of many faculty in LAS who are deeply committed to improving the learning experience of women and minorities on campus,” said Jacquelyn Litt, associate professor of sociology and interim director of the women’s studies program.

Although Litt said she is happy to be singled out, she said, she is glad to see the LAS college making diversity an important priority in its teaching mission.

Programs such as American Indian studies, African-American studies, women’s studies and others are “doing an important service to the state of Iowa … by educating people on issues of inequality and diversity.”

Three of the five Master Teacher awards were given to professors in diversity programs, she said.

“It’s not a coincidence that three of the five are from those programs,” she said.

Litt, who has worked to incorporate more world issues in the introductory women’s studies class, said she would like to see the class expand. More than 300 students a year currently take the introductory class, she said.

Litt came to Iowa State in 1995 and received her bachelor’s degree in sociology from William Smith College and her master’s and doctorate degrees, both in sociology, from the University of Pennsylvania.

— Ayrel Clark

Lulu Rodriguez

One of this year’s LAS Master Teacher award winners never saw teaching as part of her future.

After working for six years as a communications officer for the Philippine government body in charge of agriculture, Lulu Rodriguez, associate professor of journalism and communication, never dreamed she would end up a college professor.

Rodriguez attended Cornell University in New York to receive her master’s degree in mass communications after working for the Philippine government. She received her doctorate from the University of Wisconsin.

After coming to Iowa State, she was tossed in among several award-winning professors at the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communications, Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez learned quickly that “there is nothing like peer pressure to make you succeed,” she said.

Rodriguez teaches a variety of visual communication classes and handles the Greenlee School graduate students.

“I got into the multicultural area because, well, I just couldn’t get away from it,” she said remarking on her Filipino roots.

She said she is pleased to be named a Master Teacher, but hopes it helps the school.

“I’m ecstatic of course, but if the school gets support from it, that is the most crucial part,” she said.

— Tracy Tucker