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Prestigious
award honors BGSU faculty member’s teaching, mentorship
Bonnie Fink has attended Society for Technical Communication
conferences for years, watching peers receive the Jay
R. Gould Award for excellence in teaching in the field
and wondering if she would ever be “good enough”
to be so honored.
She doesn’t have to wonder anymore.
Fink, visual communication and technology education, is
among this year’s five recipients of the award,
presented by the largest professional organization in
technical communication. The presentation will be made
May 11 at the international society’s annual conference
in Baltimore.
“I think being rewarded for teaching by former students
is as good as it gets,” said Fink, who was nominated
by Jennifer Giordano, a 1997 BGSU graduate whom Fink influenced
outside, as well as in, the classroom.
“As an adviser, mentor and friend, Bonnie Fink has
shared her expertise and enthusiasm with me, believed
in me, challenged me and encouraged me,” wrote Giordano
in her letter of nomination to the award committee. “Through
my participation in our growing network of BGSU ‘tech-comm
grads’—an informal group which she has fostered
through STC events over the years—I know that she
has done no less for each of her other students.”
The Jay R. Gould Award, named for a former professor at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., “is
truly the most prestigious award that STC gives to faculty
members,” noted Sandra Harner, assistant to the
president of the society for academic and research programs.
In addition to innovation and creativity in teaching,
award criteria include mentorship of students “above
and beyond” the classroom, extending after graduation
into their careers, she explained.
“Bonnie is known for her contagious enthusiasm for
the profession of technical communication and for STC—both
of which are now evident in the lives of the students
she has touched,” added Harner, who also directs
the technical and professional communication program at
Cedarville University.
Eligibility requirements for award nominees include at
least 10 years as members of the society—Fink was
named an Associate Fellow of STC in 2001 and is current
manager of its Secondary Education Outreach Committee—and
at least 15 years in post-secondary education, where she
has taught since 1988.
Holder of a bachelor’s degree in education from
BGSU, Fink was a secondary English and communications
teacher for 18 years before joining Bowling Green’s
English department faculty as an instructor in 1988. That
December, she received her master’s degree in English,
with a specialization in scientific and technical communication,
from the University.
She continued to teach in the English department until
2001, and from 1998-2001, was coordinator and adviser
for the undergraduate program in scientific and technical
communication.
In 1998, she won the BGSU Undergraduate Alumni Association’s
Master Teacher Award and the President’s Award for
Academic Advising. The following year, she was the University’s
December commencement speaker.
Also, from 1991-2001, Fink was adviser to the BGSU Chapter
of STC. The chapter won the society’s Student Chapter
Achievement Award in five of those years, its newsletter
competition in 1994 and 1996, and a Pacesetter Award in
2001.
“Bonnie encouraged me to attend regional and international
STC conferences as a job-hunter, as a professional, and
as a presenter,” wrote Giordano, adding that thanks
to Fink’s “continual influence and encouragement,”
she has gained the knowledge, experience and confidence
to make presentations at the society’s last seven
annual conferences.
Now in the College of Technology, Fink teaches distance
learning classes, as well as a Technology Systems in Societies
course. She is also developing an online, degree completion
program for working adults and new courses for firefighters
and EMS personnel and for library science students. In
addition, she has an Ohio Board of Regents grant to design
and implement information literacy training for technologists.
At the University level, Fink designs and presents communication
workshops to BGSU units and industry for the Continuing
and Extended Education and human resources offices. She
is also current co-chair of the Enrollment Network and
a member of the President’s Advisory Council.
Rebecca Ferguson, assistant vice president for human resources,
has known Fink since 1998, when Ferguson’s office
contracted with her to develop and deliver training.
“During this time, I have watched Bonnie go out
of her way to provide a human touch to teaching and technology
for our staff, students and external training clients,”
noted Ferguson, who currently serves with Fink on the
President’s Advisory Council. “She is candid,
creative, fun and one of the most positive forces of energy
we have on this campus.”
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