2008 Ohio Section Award for
Distinguished College or University Teaching of
Mathematics
Judy Holdener
Kenyon College
Tom Dence presents Judy
Holdener with the 2008 Ohio Section Teaching Award
Judy Holdener of Kenyon College is the 2008 recipient of the Award for
Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics given by
the Ohio Section. Teaching Award Committee member Tom Dence presented
the award to Judy at the Spring 2008 Meeting of the Ohio Section. Judy
has a distinguished record of teaching and scholarship. She
supervises high school teachers who teach Calculus, and also holds the
Distinguished Teaching Chair position at Kenyon. It is her
responsibility to organize campus activities that promote the
discussion of excellent teaching among the university
faculty. Judy is a national Project NExT Fellow, and has
served the Ohio Section by being a member of both CONSTUM and CONSACT.
Judy’s students and colleagues wrote these comments in the application
for the award:
“One day early this semester, Professor Holdener sat down and went
through a list of 50 graduate programs with me. We spent a total
of two hours discussing each school individually, until I had pared
down the list to seven schools. Since then I have gone to her office
several times worried about graduate school, and she has always been
there to help. Professor Holdener has been open, accessible, and
always helpful. I know without a doubt that she has changed my
life for the better.”
“Judy is the single most gifted teacher with whom I’ve ever had the
pleasure to serve. She is a complete natural, but is also
meticulous and thorough in
preparation for class. She is also a master of designing engaging
and instructive projects. She challenges the students, but they
enjoy the process so much it doesn’t feel like they are being
pushed. This connection with students – combined with her
prodigious mathematical insight – has made Judy the most sought after
research advisor in our department. Within the past few years
Judy has worked with students on projects as diverse as computer models
of the
gut of a worm, visualization of binary sequences as fractals, and the
distribution of perfect numbers.”
“I have said that Judy is unusually successful at getting students
immersed in the mathematics, so that what they do (not what she does)
is the engine that drives her classes. Papers, projects, computer
visualization and simulation, student presentations, independent
research, design of web pages and scientific posters are all present in
Judy’s teaching. She brings to the classroom the same
intelligence and care and fire as the students have, but in her
classes, it is the students who give the great performances.
It changes them forever.”
(Adapted by the Editor from the teaching award citation written by Tom
Dence on behalf of the Teaching Award Committee.)
