In 2018 I was nominated for and then honored to be awarded the Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching at Boston University.   Here are the materials I submitted to the Metcalf Award Committee. 

The Metcalf Cup and Prize and Metcalf Awards were established in 1973 by a gift from the late alumnus and Boston University Trustee, Dr. Arthur G. B. Metcalf, to create “a systematic procedure for the review of the quality of teaching at Boston University and the identification and advancement of those members of the faculty who excel as teachers.”

Each year, the Provost’s Faculty Teaching Awards Committee selects one Metcalf Cup and Prize winner who receives a stipend of $10,000, and up to two Metcalf Award winners who receive stipends of $5,000.

The Provost’s Faculty Teaching Awards Committee consists of the Chair, a committee member from a previous year, previous Metcalf Prize and Award winners, and a previous United Methodist Scholar/Teacher of the Year. The committee also includes two students: one Harold C. Case Scholarship winner and one Dean Elsbeth Melville Scholarship winner. Learn more about the committee here.

Over the course of the year, the committee solicits and reviews supporting materials from the candidates:  short essays on their approaches to teaching, course syllabi, student evaluations, graded assignments, samples of student feedback, documents to support learning, other interactive and/or web-based course materials, and letters of recommendation from the candidates’ department chairs. The members of the committee visit the classes of the finalists and, in the spring, present their recommendations to the University President. The Cup and Prize and the Awards are presented annually at Commencement.