Clark State Community College will honor more than 30 adjunct faculty members for their years of service at the Adjunct Faculty Appreciation dinner August 15 at the Hollenbeck Bayley Creative Arts and Conference Center in downtown Springfield.
Shashi Chadha has been an adjunct instructor at Clark State for 40 years; she also served on the Clark State Foundation Board of Directors. In 1977, when her children were in school full-time, Chadha decided she was ready to return to work part-time. She began teaching Introduction to Psychology at Clark State. “
“I love teaching at Clark State and always feel proud to be one of the adjunct faculty at our college,” said Chadha. “It is very satisfying to see some of our students doing well in life and become contributing members of our community as nurses in the hospital, managers at restaurants and stores and others finishing their master’s degrees and working as counselors or psychologists.”
Chadha took on teaching additional courses at Clark State when her children left for college, including abnormal psychology, communications and regional studies. She values student success and said she is happy that Clark State is making valiant strides towards the same goal.
“Shashi Chadha is among the most dedicated and passionate educators that I have known,” said Dr. Jo Alice Blondin, president of Clark State. “She works closely with her students to ensure that they master the material in her courses, and her breadth of knowledge and command of her discipline are unparalleled. Shashi’s professionalism and commitment are respected by faculty, staff and students alike.”
Terry Black, a lifetime resident of Springfield, will be recognized for his 20 years as a Clark State adjunct instructor. Black teaches business and accounting courses.
“I have a passion for teaching because it makes a student more knowledgeable than the day before,” said Black. “I know the wonderful feeling I have, when after observing a student struggle with a concept, I see the look in their eyes and the smile on their face when they finally grasp that concept. That's why I continue to teach. If that feeling ever subsides, it will be time for me to retire.”
Black said he fondly recalls a former student who didn't think accounting was their "thing” grow to become the director of finance with a corporation in Dayton.
“I encourage students who think they have a fear of math by telling them that accounting has more to do with where to place numbers than the mathematics involved,” he said. “I tell them their calculators will do the math for them, they just need to know where to place the numbers.”
Black, also a Clark State alumnus, distinctly remembers being a student in Robert Burton's Intermediate Accounting class in Room 206 at the Brinkman Educational Center many years ago: “What a great thrill for me it is to be standing on the other side of the lectern, in that very same classroom, imparting knowledge to my own students many years later.”
The Adjunct Faculty Appreciation Dinner will begin at 5:30p.m., Wednesday, August 15 at the Hollenbeck Bayley Creative Arts and Conference Center, 275 South Limestone Street in Springfield.
40 Years
Shashi Chadha
20 Years
Terry Black
Iotha Roberts
15 Years
Terry Fisher
Roger Foster
Lynn Geist
Peter Herdt
Marianne Kaiser
Chris Loar
10 Years
Rachel Botkin
Mark Hopkins
Chris Howard
Dawn Poole
5 Years
Phillip Baines
Lisa Christensen
Will Clemens
Patrick Craig
Elizabeth Crawford
Terri Dowler
Timothy Epperhart
Cullen Erbacher
Jacqueline Godwin
Chris Heaton
Jeffrey McClain
Vance McCulla
Kimberly Reeder
Leonard Richardson
Christa Sisler
Colleen Stough
Christy Trotter
James Wainwright
Victoria Walters
Daniel Welty
Dwayne Whitehead