Carol Baugh is retiring from some of her duties in December, and she said winning an Ohio Association of Two-Year Colleges (OATYC) Adjunct Faculty of the Year Award is a nice way to go out.
“Of course it is very flattering,” Baugh said. “I’ve been doing this for 30 years.”
Baugh teaches Appalachian Studies and American History at Sinclair Community College. She hasn’t taught at Sinclair for all of those 30 years—she’s also taught at Wright State University and Miami University—but said she feels a connection to the people she’s worked with here.
“I’ll really miss the people I’ve worked with,” Baugh said. “I’ll miss working with people in the community. I’ll miss the constant connection with everyone.”
The OATYC selects a full-time and adjunct faculty member from each participating college. Baugh was the adjunct nominee and Laurel Mayer, a Political Science professor, was the full-time nominee.
Each instructor must be nominated by a peer. Baugh said she was nominated by her friend Tess Little, who is an Art professor at Sinclair.
The awards were given out at during the OATYC yearly conference and luncheon on Oct. 22 at Central Ohio Technical College, in Newark, Ohio. Baugh, Little, Mayer and John Weaver, the chair of the Department of History and Humanities, attended the event representing Sinclair.
Baugh said when she heard she’d won the award she was surprised because of “how nice the others were.”
Baugh said she always thought that being student-centered was a The key to her teaching style
“I’ve seen both sides of the coin,” Baugh said. “I never forgot what it’s like to work a job and go to school.”
She said she wanted her classes to be challenging, but never to the point that she intentionally made a student struggle.
“You can’t be so rigid so that you miss a student’s needs,” Baugh said. “Students don’t all produce one way. Sometimes they can be very different and as a teacher, you have to juggle that. It’s all about adjusting your teacher style to fit your student’s needs.”
Once Baugh retires from some of her responsibilities at Sinclair—she said she’ll still teach some classes—she wants to do some of the things that she couldn’t as a teacher, including working on a historical home she owns.
“I’ve enjoyed teaching,” Baugh said. “But it’s time to take things a little slower.”