Dr. Joanna Sabo receives the Faculty of the Year Award at the 2016 Honors Night ceremony. (Photo by Emily Lorton)
On Wednesday, April 27 Dr. Joanna Sabo was given Monroe County Community College’s Outstanding Faculty award for the 2015 -2016 school year.
The award was presented by Dr. Grace Yackee.
Sabo never imagined she would be a professor, in fact, she describes her teaching career as something that she “fell into by accident”.
Sabo is the political science professor at MCCC and she is involved in many facets of student life at the college. Including, (but not limited to) being the Adviser of the International Studies Club on campus and an active part of the school’s study abroad program.
But, up until recently, she never imagined being in this position.
“I started my consulting company and I was looking for some way to make a little side income while I grew the business,” Sabo said.
“So in 1992 I taught a part time class in political science and then I got asked to teach in the business division. I immediately fell in love with the interactions with students, so I decided to get my PhD and then went full time.”
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Adjunct Faculty of the Year Award
Sabo was chosen to win the award by students and fellow faculty members, and upon accepting the award thanked her students for helping make teaching so great.
“There are two types of teachers,” she said. “Some that walk in the room and say ‘this is what I have to tell the students’ and some walk in the room and say ‘this is what they need to learn.’”
“It’s all about thinking about the individual students,” Sabo said.
Sabo doesn’t have a definitive favorite class to teach, saying it was a tie between her Intro to Political Science course and International Relations class. One thing that is definite though is her love of teaching those that want to learn.
“I’m just the luckiest person in the world,” she said.
