Montgomery College English Professor Receives Top Teaching Award
Many of Dr. Greg Wahl’s students are confronted with obstacles to learning: inadequate preparation for college courses, homelessness, learning disabilities, and lack of family support for educational pursuits, to name a few. But Wahl embraces the challenge of helping his students in developmental English overcome obstacles and find academic success in college.
“Many students have no real reason to trust me when they enter college,” said Wahl. “Perhaps they have never been convinced that school is worthwhile. Or they may be surprised by their placement into developmental courses and have begun to question their previous education. Suddenly, they feel the risk of failure. Mitigating that risk requires new ways to navigate academic rigor.”
Wahl’s compassion for and keen interest in his students’ success is what led Wahl to be named 2013 Maryland Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).
The subject of a March 2013 Chronicle of Higher Education article about the challenges facing developmental students, Wahl had a reporter “embedded” in his classroom for an entire semester. The resulting article was a window into his students’ world and a compassionate look at the struggles faced by developmental students. The piece, “The Second Chance Club,” can be found on the Chronicle’s website (http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Second-Chance-Club/137817.)
“The opportunity to share the lives and struggles of my students with a national audience was too good an opportunity to turn down, despite the unsettling prospect of baring the successes and failures of my work to so many people, including some who doubt the worth of developmental education,” said Wahl.
“What sets Professor Wahl apart is his extraordinary dedication to the students in his developmental English classes [and] his efforts to help the most underprepared of our students complete the developmental course sequence and move on to successfully graduate or transfer to other colleges or universities,” said Dr. Brad Stewart, vice president and provost at the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus. “I have long suspected that something extraordinary happens in his classroom.”
Lara Shipley is one such example—transforming from a developmental English student to an honors student under Wahl’s tutelage. “Going to college was always a dream of mine, but I had let poor choices and the fear of failure deter me from that dream,” she said.
“It has been said that ‘when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.’ Dr. Wahl was indeed that teacher.... He taught the class with enthusiasm, confidence, and incredible patience.... I soon found myself taking risks and exploring my writing skills. These risks were recognized by Dr. Wahl and through his guidance, I began uncovering hidden talents in myself that I never knew existed.
Today, Shipley participates in the Renaissance Scholars Program, a selective honors program for high-achieving students.
Wahl came to the College in 2003 as director of the Writing, Reading, and Language Center at the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus. In 2007 he joined the English Department, where he
currently teaches credit-level composition and developmental writing, including accelerated sections; themed learning communities such as “Reading and Writing about Popular Culture”; and sections with extra grammar instruction.
From 2009 to this fall, he coordinated the developmental writing program at the campus, facilitating the teaching of 10–20 sections of developmental writing courses per semester; running the portfolio placement process; designing outcomes assessments; and leading work groups for the realignment of the collegewide English composition sequence, including innovative programs to accelerate developmental students to credit courses.
Wahl is active in helping to secure honors and scholarships for MC students. He is an advisor for the highly competitive Jack Kent Cooke transfer scholarship, which has produced one winner for the campus. He has been an LGBT Safe Zone participant at Montgomery College, and has designed and implemented curriculum for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. He is a national Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities Leadership Fellow, faculty advisor for Cengage Learning TeamUP Faculty Programs, and a member of various advisory committees and working groups on writing in the disciplines and the teaching of writing.
In addition to his classroom work, Wahl has given conference presentations on hip-hop, country, and punk music; fiction and poetry; the films of Clint Eastwood; and Egyptian feminist author Nawal El-Saadawi. He has published reviews and original scholarship in numerous journals and anthologies.
The US Professors of the Year program salutes the most outstanding undergraduate instructors in the country—and those who excel as teachers and influence the lives and careers of their students. It is recognized as one of the most prestigious awards honoring professors.
This is the seventh time in 10 years—and the fifth year in a row—that a Montgomery College professor has been named Maryland Professor of the Year.
Dr. Mary Furgol, a history professor, received the honor in 2003. In 2006, Joanne Naake, an English professor, won the award. In 2009, the award went to Chemistry Professor Susan Bontems, followed by Dr. Deborah Stearns, a psychology professor; Music Professor Dawn Avery; and Math Professor John Hamman, respectively.
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Montgomery College is a public, open admissions community college with campuses in Germantown, Rockville, and Takoma Park/Silver Spring, plus workforce development/continuing education centers and off-site programs throughout Montgomery County, Md. The College serves nearly 60,000 students a year, through both credit and noncredit programs, in more than 130 areas of study.
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