He does his own research and he writes his own textbook chapters, but he still takes,
he still makes us, his students, his primary focus.
She's always just present with you and wanting to hear, you know, where you're at, what you're
up to.
She has compassion for every single one of her students, hands down.
He is a great father, he's a great teacher, he's a great leader in our department and
he's also just a great person to know.
I wish I could do something more in return, even this feels like it's not enough.
He's just the epitome of who, I think, a great teacher should be.
Physical therapy school is very demanding.
We ask a lot of them in a three-year period.
They are remarkably dedicated to get to that point.
He wants the best for us as students.
He doesn't just lecture us and if we don't understand it, he tries different ways to
teach us.
We all hate the quizzes, but he gives us small quizzes and that helps you learn and helps
you retain information more.
So, while it's challenging and I don't always do well on those quizzes, it makes me keep
up with class.
When they leave and they go to practice, and that's all across the country in addition
to Kentucky, they then have an influence from our teaching and the University of Kentucky
wherever they go.
So, there's this huge cascading effect year after year about the quality of our education
here and how it is dispersed in clinical practice across the country.
Dr. Hazle, he's a very humble man.
He doesn't, this award I know he's extremely excited about deep down, but you never see
it on the outside.
He should be recognized, and he should be praised and he's going to not like that.
But, it’s so exciting that he gets this opportunity and I'm glad he can represent
the Hazard campus.
When one think of that there are only six every year and that this has gone on since
1961, I believe, that's a pretty elite group of educators to be in.
This is an honor more than what I could have imagined.
I often like to say that I'm not a faculty member who stands in front of my students
rather I'm a faculty member that stands behind my students and helps them create discovery.
Up until the point I met him, I was struggling and coming into his class, I really had a
breakthrough in my studies, where I was understanding the content more and a lot of that is attributed
to him.
You know, how much he cared was so obvious, and so I felt like he really deserved that
in return.
To show that the students who he does this kind of stuff for, really means a lot.
This is not just the University of Kentucky, but the University for Kentucky and my job
as a faculty member is to help our alumni and our students, our current students, realize
their fullest potential.
If you can improve one student's life that they can challenge and change other people's
lives as they move forward as well.
I would just like to say thanks, I mean everything he's done for me, you know, there's.
I wish I could do something more in return.
I hope this is a good thanks for him, but if I could, you know, buy him a mansion and
a yacht, I think that would be about the best return I could give him.
I'm very happy to be a part of such a dynamic teaching and education force at the University
of Kentucky.
To say that one of my students nominated me for this is quite impressive, but to realize
that there are many more students that have been positively influenced because of the
work that I do, I just can't really put that into words.
I really am so fortunate to be able to do something that I love.
I'm fortunate in the students that I have; I have fantastic students.
So, I really get to know them very well because I have them four semesters in a row and see
them all the time, you know, throughout the journey of beginning the teacher ed program
all the way through graduation and getting jobs.
So, it's just, I love that.
I love that I get to be with them longer.
She is always there for us and it's not just our cohort, she has multiple cohorts, but
you wouldn't know that just in the way that she interacts with us.
It's like we're the only group of students she has.
She really kind of makes you feel important.
I have fantastic students I love, I love teaching and I love working with them, I love mentoring
them into teaching and it really meant a lot that it came from the students.
It's so wonderful of the Alumni Association to do this.
I think that we need to celebrate fantastic teachers in our lives and at our university
because I think that it's the heartbeat of everything that we do.
She's just a very loving, wonderful, warm person and I just couldn't think of anybody
better really to share this experience with of me graduating and just it's been nothing
but a pleasure to have her in my corner for the past three years.
I would just like to say thank you to Dr. Rintamaa and just everything she's done for
me to help me to get to where I am at this point in my college career and moving forward
into my professional career.
To me, it's not about lecturing, it's not about imparting knowledge, it's really about
taking advantage of an opportunity to look at the impact that we can have on the world
and looking at young minds who want to go do that and working with them to figure out
how best to prepare them.
He's great with his students.
He pushes them, he encourages them.
And it's great to have the kind of interaction with students that, you know, I'm Mel, I'm
not Professor Coffee and they know that.
He has so much compassion for people, but then again in class, and in critiques and
grading that doesn't necessarily show all the time.
He's very, very strong in his grading, his critiques he'll tell you how it is, and he
takes the time to know his students in order to provide criticism the right way.
So, when they walk across the stage, it’s completion of something to me.
It's ok; you're on your way let's see what happens.
Whether it's going into the field I'm teaching or something else, seeing how they are able
to take four years of a college education and make a difference somehow, that's probably
the most rewarding part of teaching when something happens that you may have either been responsible
for or not and yet they attribute that to the time spent in your classroom or in your
office or at lunch or wherever you had a conversation about something important.
I don't think my college experience would have been anywhere near as gratifying without
him and so I just want to say thank you for supporting me, thank you for being there for
me, thank you for providing leadership and mentorship outside the classroom, inside the
classroom.
I can't replace it; I can't thank him enough for it.
Teaching is fun and, you know, I never thought I would be a teacher at the graduate level
ever, but I appreciate the opportunity to teach new and inspiring research each and
every day.
He goes beyond what we can learn from the textbook and he sees your strengths.
He makes sure you meet your goals, whatever it is, and I think that's what makes him a
great teacher.
It's really just very sweet, very thoughtful, you know, recognition that, you know, while
all this time and effort that I put into, you know, teaching and prepping and answering
student questions that I love, I have a passion for it and it just meant wow people notice
it, not just me, my wife and my kids.
Dr. Toland finds a way, especially with such a hard field, such as statistics and psychometrics,
finds a way to make you feel like you're not the dumbest person in the room and in an environment
where it can be so intense and there can be so much pressure for you to show that you're
successful every time.
He allows you to be vulnerable, he allows you to make mistakes and he really allows
you to grow in that way.
I would like to tell him thanks for the time that he spent, not every advisor would spend
numerous hours a week making sure their students are not only on track academically, but that
they feel like they belong, that they feel like they have a place in our department and
that their goals are just a few steps ahead of them.
So, thanks for that.
The teaching recognitions and awards make me reflect on my journey, so I came to the
country about 20 years ago.
This has been my home.
I love this profession.
I love the students.
I love what I can do for them, but I think, more importantly, I learn from the students.
Dr. Liu really just put so much effort and energy into helping students and honestly
at the end of the day, you know, all that she receives back is just the satisfaction
that she was there to offer support and guidance, and so I think that's pretty incredible how
generous she is with her limited time and with her energy, so I think that makes her
an amazing teacher, who deserves to be recognized.
I have so many moments that the students come in to me excitedly telling me that they got
this, you know, internship, they got that job, they got this scholarship, they're going
to graduate school, so those moments were precious to me.
I have a great family, but the students are my second family so to speak.
They inspire me to work hard.
Students, they're energic, so they give me energy.
She always present with you and wanting to hear where you're at, you know, what you’re
up to, it's been really meaningful checking in with her and talking to her and hearing
her say you're so capable and I believe in you really.
So, I'm really grateful for that and I know that I'll always remember the help that she
gave me, and I hope that I can be a similar example.
So, thank you, Dr. Liu.