By Rylee Seavers | Staff Writer
Phi Kappa Chi is accepting nominations for the annual Light Your World Professor Award. The award is meant to honor a professor that has had a positive impact on the lives of students.
Phi Kappa Chi created the Light Your World Professor Award because the fraternity felt that students needed a way to recognize these professors, said DeSoto senior Ezra Zepeda, external vice president of Phi Kappa Chi.
Previously, the nomination only came from members of Phi Kappa Chi, but they recently decided to open the nominations to all students, Zepeda said.
“To have that recognition from someone saying, ‘Hey, what you’re doing, keep it up. You’re doing a great job.’ It’s an encouragement, and it’s empowering. It allows you to keep doing what you are doing,” Zepeda said.
Any student can nominate a professor that has had an impact on them. Nominations can be any length, Zepeda said, and should tell what that professor does, how they have impacted your life and how you can see them impacting the lives of others.
Nominations are reviewed by Phi Kappa Chi’s executive council, which will vote on the professor who will receive the award. The executive council is made up of seven members of Phi Kappa Chi, Zepeda said.
“From my experience, the classes that I have learned the most in and I’ve performed the best in have been the classes where the professors are passionate about what they are talking about, the professors who take the time to get to know you and want you to come to office hours,” said Broken Arrow freshman MaryGrace Lesikar. “I might not even do amazing in the class, but I leave the class knowing the knowledge.”
Lesikar said that professors don’t get enough credit for the impact that they have on student, and they deserve to know how much students care about them.
“Professors put in a lot of work trying to instill passion in students. They have things they are passionate about, and they want to transfer that,” said Boerne senior Anya Maltsberger. “They think it’s important that [students] learn to see the world in a new way, and I think that’s what [professors] do here at Baylor.”
The deadline for nominating a professor is Feb. 24. After deciding the recipient of the award, Phi Kappa Chi will notify the professor, and they will be honored at the Light Your World banquet.
Nominations should be emailed to Ezra Zepeda at ezra_zepeda@baylor.edu.
