Top Teachers
Blinn Professional Association Announces Teaching Awards
The Blinn College Professional Association selected instructors in math, English, and legal assisting for this year’s Teaching Excellence Awards.
Math instructor Gary Ivy received the award for the Brenham, Schulenburg and Sealy campuses. On the Bryan campuses, English instructor Dr. Olympia Sibley received the award in the academic category. Legal Assisting program coordinator Robert Stanberry won the award in the applied sciences category.
The recipients will be honored at Blinn’s commencement ceremony on May 14 in Brenham.
The college and the association give teaching excellence awards annually to faculty who communicate knowledge and experience while motivating and developing students' intellectual abilities and academic talents. Award recipients receive a $250 stipend and an engraved plaque.
Ivy has taught math at Blinn for 22 years. He is also active in the community through Habitat for Humanity and the Brenham Evening Lions Club. “Mr. Gary Ivy, the mathematics instructor in Brenham, has made a lasting impression upon me and my fellow classmates,” wrote the student who nominated him.
Dr. Sibley began teaching at Blinn in Bryan in 2006. The student who nominated her noted that Sibley is committed to high academic standards while demonstrating a genuine concern for her students: “Her care for each student is demonstrated daily in the way she treats them with cheerful courtesy and respect regardless of the student’s performance in class or respect towards her. It is also shown in her strong desire to help each student succeed academically and personally.”
Stanberry, who holds a law degree from Baylor, took over the Legal Assisting program in 2007. He also sponsors the Legal Assistant Student Organization. He said his goal as an educator is to instill three things in his students: work ethic, mastery of the material, and creativity. In nominating Stanberry, his student remarked that she had never experienced a more dedicated instructor. “Mr. Stanberry is understanding, compassionate, patient, and professional,” she said. “Mr. Stanberry has inspired me to be the best paralegal that I can be with the knowledge that he has given me.”
