School of Public Health and Health System's Kelly Anthony will be one of four University of Waterloo faculty members to receive the Distinguished Teacher Award for 2013 at convocation, provost Geoff McBoyle announced at the March meeting of the university senate.
Her teaching can be best described as a character and perspective building experience, underscoring a level of accountability and connectivity to the community. One student claims that Anthony has been a “catalyst to opening my perspectives of the world”, and another has developed “a unique belief set regarding our moral obligations to the KW community” thanks to her instruction. Ultimately, her students not only gain knowledge but become equipped with a sense of awareness and motivation to be better and more informed participants of the world.
Like the best teachers, she intuitively cultivates interest and genuine enthusiasm in her students, “[lighting] up the fire” and stirring their dormant appetites. Anthony’s interactive teaching style stresses discussion-based classes and experiential learning, deftly eluding the passive transfer of facts. These discussion-based lectures “provoke conversations that guide learning and respective epiphanies… engaging [her students] in intellectual spars fostered by an environment that was facilitated by her open nature.”
Under her mentorship, several undergraduate students have developed research projects and participated in independent studies abroad. “Her passionate disposition, superior critical acumen and moral sensibility” confirms her place as a “distinguished teacher” at the University of Waterloo.