Ms Chunyan Ji and Dr Milen Jissov
The first President's Award for Teaching and Service for Academic Staff will be presented at the Great Hall of Zhuhai in the evening gala of UIC’s Tenth Anniversary Celebration on 12 December. Ms Chunyan Ji (Senior Lecturer of DST) and Dr Milen Jissov (Associate Director of GEO) captured the accolade, standing out from a total of nine applicants.
According to Associate Vice President Prof Lilian Kwan, Chairperson of the Selection Panel, the award marks an important milestone for UIC in recognising the dedication and commitment of academic staff, who support the mission of the college to nurture students as whole persons.
Introduced last November and open for full-time academic staff who have at least two years of service, the annual award rewards their outstanding performance and achievement in the areas of teaching and service.
The Selection Panel received a total of seven nominations from Divisions and Course Offering Units and two direct applications. Five staff members were shortlisted to proceed to the next stage, in which the Panel members closely observed their classroom teaching performance. An individual interview for the final selection was later organised in April and May.
The two awardees demonstrated superior classroom teaching, did well in engaging and inspiring students, and showed genuine care and concern for their performance and development. In addition, Ms Ji and Dr Jissov excelled in course design with a commitment to serving the college and were active involved in public service as well as the professional community.
Each awardee will receive a plaque and a cash reward of RMB3000. This semester, workshops will be held to share their experience.
The Selection Panel members included Prof Clement Leung (Professor of DST), Prof Stella Cho (Dean of DBM), Prof Mei-hwa Sung (Dean of DHSS) and Prof Mildred Yang (Director of GEO).
Ms Chunyan Ji
Chunyan Ji says the President's Award is a great encouragement. This September, she also earned a Guangdong Excellent Teacher Award.
Chunyan Ji received her Master's Degree in Computer Science from Georgia State University. After working for famous IT companies Unisys and FIS in America, she joined UIC's CST Programme in 2008. Last year, she and her team published a textbook, The Essential Practice of Information Technology, which won a Guangdong Excellent Textbook Award.
During her spell at UIC, Ms Ji has led her teaching team to reform the IT courses. Adept at turning even the most reluctant students into IT enthusiasts, Ms Ji instils in them pride and hope as they make strides in her class. She also offers students learning opportunities of internships and assistance in research projects during summer in addition to organising extra classes for students with lower grades every week.
Ms Ji has finished research projects granted by the college and an external enterprise project. Her team is now working on one of the Guangdong Selective Online Open Courses.
Dr Milen Jissov
After obtaining a PhD degree in History at Queen's University, Canada, Dr Milen Jissov became part of the UIC community in 2010 and has served as Associate Director of the GEO since 2012. He is Secretary of the college's General Education Management Committee and a Member of the Teaching and Learning Policy Committee. One of his research projects has been funded by a UIC Research Grant.
Two years ago, he was given a Zhuhai Excellent Teacher Award by the municipal government.
Dr Jissov demonstrates up-to-date knowledge of his field of study in the curriculum design, textbooks, and moreover, e-learning resources.
He is also able to inspire students with respect to their diverse learning needs and help them in building confidence, critical thinking and analytical skills.
Dr Jissov says: “I think that the College has been making an extremely serious effort to achieve a world-class pedagogical excellence. I am sure that it will continue pursuing this goal with the same dedication in the future.”
This article is republished from MPRO's UIC Beacon Issue XVII. To view an online version of the full newsletter, please click here (WiFi network recommended); to download the original PDF file, please click here.
