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Adjunct Teaching Excellence Award 2018

Sarah Rescoe

Sarah RescoeKnown for her exceptional teaching and devotion in helping each student be successful, Sarah Rescoe, Instructor in the English, Literature, and World Languages department, was chosen for the 2018 Adjunct Teaching Excellence Award.

“Ms. Rescoe exemplifies the very best of our teaching faculty at Ferris, providing within her classroom not just the basics, but also an ethical community where excellence, learning, diversity, collaboration, and opportunity for growth and innovation allow her students to thrive,” writes Professor and Library Instruction Coordinator Kristen Motz in her recommendation letter. “Once they [students] move on, they carry with them intellectual curiosity and a breadth of global knowledge that will support them well in the future.”

Student and department evaluations attest to Rescoe commitment to her students. “Professor Rescoe devoted quality time to evaluating each student’s work and providing feedback tailored to each student’s ability. She taught in a way that met the needs of all students with a wide range of abilities,” writes former student Hannah Lamberg. She is more than willing to spend her time helping her students, both past and present, according to former student Rachel Lutzko, “Her continuous devotion and love for her subject and students is clearly demonstrated in everything she does.”

“…. Dr. Rescoe is one of Ferris State’s finest classroom instructors… she constantly redesigns her courses to appeal to students’ interests and address their strengths and weaknesses, a process that includes choosing a new interdisciplinary theme for her classes each semester,” writes nominator Christian Peterson, Humanities professor, “… few professors develop such an excellent rapport with their students. Because her students sense that she cares about their success in the classroom and in life, they often make a more concerted effort to meet her expectations and do work they might not do for other teachers.”

In her statement of teach philosophy, Roscoe believes that “educators … have a responsibility to use pedagogy wisely to empower students to become more adaptable …and to provide learners with the illumination necessary to encourage critical thinking, conflict resolution, and collaboration.” To this end, she uses “activities, readings, and assignments around interdisciplinary themes or core concepts–such as diversity, globalization, resilience, post-truth, social justice, etc.–…to introduce different perspectives/points of view and to emphasize social and civic issues that have a bearing on the quality of students’ lives.”

Collaborating with other faculty members, both on campus and around the globe, Rescoe shares her teaching methods with them while learning new methods as well. She has created interdisciplinary courses and is a champion of Open Education Resources, which save students money. With her colleagues in FLITE, Rescoe has created and employed innovative teaching methods, active learning modules, and game-based assignments, introducing a new concept to faculty on campus called game-based learning.

Rescoe earned a Ph.D. in Global Development Studies and a MS in International Development, both from Tulane University; a MA in English Literature from Lincoln College, Oxford University; and a BA in English from Ferris State University.

Rescoe and other recipients of the 2018 Academic Affairs Awards were recognized on Wednesday, April 25, 2018, at the Employee Service Awards in the David L. Eisler Center.