By VIVIANE GILBERT STEIN of the East Oregonian
PENDLETON - When Lucy Smith was honored with the Post-Secondary Teacher of the Year award by a statewide education association, she handled it just like she handles her first day of class.
She dressed up - and acted up - to prove a point. It's that sort of teaching strategy that livens up her classes and makes it "easy and enjoyable for the students ... to grasp the contents" of her lessons, according to a letter of support from her supervisor at Blue Mountain Community College, Dean Gail Pincus.
Smith then accepted the award on behalf of all the teachers who didn't get recognized but who always strive to do their best. By doing so, Smith honored her colleagues "for the sacrifice and the polishing and the honing that they do that nobody else knows about."
It's that sort of teaching style and commitment to her task that earned Smith the statewide award from the Oregon Business and Management Education Association.
Pincus, the dean of BMCC's professional technical programs, called Smith "an excellent role model for business educators," and praised her teaching effectiveness and impact on the department and college in the letter of support.
That information was drawn from student, peer and professional evaluations from Smith's work at BMCC. "I feel really good because of what the dean wrote," Smith said. "And I really appreciate the state giving me the award, but it means a lot that the students were part of it."
Realizing that an award reflects a team effort, Pincus and BMCC President Nicki Harrington "re-awarded" the honor to Smith during a department meeting last week.
Smith appreciated the gesture. After all, she pointed out, "I'm not just working by myself. It's a collaborative effort."
In attendance at that department meeting was Tiah Van Dusen, the Hermiston High School teacher who nominated Smith for the honor.
Smith's family, including her mother, her husband Mike, their two grown sons and a grandson, were able to attend the conference in Albany last month to see her accept the award.
In all her years of teaching, Smith has never received such an honor.
"I'm quite tickled with it," she said.
Smith is "quite tickled" for several reasons. It recognizes her work at the college as well as her many years of service to the state association, for which she served as secretary for years, while also recognizing her work at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution.
Smith teaches a full load of business courses at BMCC in addition to a class at EOCI each term.
"It's exhausting," she admitted. "But I feel really good about the time I spend at the prison because it's positive time for them and that's good for the community."
Giving inmates something positive to think about - in Smith's class, it's computer keyboarding - is good for the entire community, she said.
"And they treat me fine," she said. "They are very good students."
Smith has been a full-time instructor at BMCC since 1981. But she taught there part-time since 1969, off and on as her children grew up, she explained.
She teaches in the office assistant and administrative support programs, offering courses such as desktop publishing, office procedure and word processing.
Smith also is the Cooperative Work Experience supervisor; for the past 10 years she has helped coordinate students with local businesses for on-the-job experience. She also teaches an office careers survey class.
Prior to teaching at BMCC, Smith taught two years at McLoughlin High School in Milton-Freewater and two years at Forest Grove.
Although she attended Eastern Oregon for several years, Smith earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from Oregon State University.
The award was more than just personal praise, according to Smith, who called it "positive news for the campus."
While positive news is important for the community to hear about the local college, Smith has one more goal in mind.
"My dream for BMCC is that we can have a child-care facility on campus," Smith said. "I feel not having a facility is a barrier to students to enroll or continue their education," and could even impact future planning.
"So I think it would benefit BMCC greatly if we could have a child care facility."