NEWS
APRIL 2, 2021 | 3
FSU announces recipients of the Distinguished Faculty and Librarian Awards By Ashlyn Kelly Asst. News Editor Framingham State announced the four recipients of the Distinguished Faculty and Librarian Awards for Excellence in Teaching, Advising, Scholarship, or Service in an email to faculty Mar. 16. Vincent Ferraro, sociology department chair, received the Excellence in Advising award. Jeri Nelson-Peterman, food and nutrition department chair, received the Excellence in Scholarship award. Sarah Pilkenton, chemistry and food science professor, received the Excellence in Service award. Lina Rincón, sociology professor and assistant director of The Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching, Scholarship and Service, received the Excellence in Teaching award. According to Ellen Zimmerman, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs, individuals are nominated by their colleagues during the spring semester for the awards. The recipients are decided on by the four college deans and the dean of the library, and announced by the provost. In May, they are recognized at commencement, and during the fall semester, CELTSS holds an event to honor them. Ferraro said he started teaching at Framingham State in the fall of 2011. “Right when I started, my focus on
advising was just on my formal advising,” said Ferraro. He said now his role has “expanded to include many of our majors and minors, and students who might just be interested” as well as helping colleagues “navigate the department, expectations of the University, and the various offices.” According to Ferraro, he most enjoys “helping students set out a plan and make sense out of it, and then seeing in them that their goals are achievable and it’s just a matter of knowing what the processes are.” Ferraro said, “I am deeply thankful for the acknowledgment from my peers and from the University of the work that I’ve been doing.” Nelson-Peterman said the scholarship award is “just another word for research” and “we use scholarship rather than saying research is that there are faculty who are engaged in other work that isn’t necessarily research, per se, but it’s considered scholarly.” According to Nelson-Peterman, her research is focused on immigrants coming into the U.S. food environment. Nelson-Peterman said while she was working as a dietician for a refugee agency, “a lot of the scientific literature … was very immigrant blaming. “It really troubled me that, in my field, instead of taking a wider look at what the food system is, and thinking
about how everybody interacts with the food system whether you were born here or whether you come in, that dietitians are kind of automatically blaming clients for what’s basically universal behavior in the U.S.,” she added. Nelson-Peterman said she is “really delighted” to be recognized “with such great people who got the other awards. “I admire all three of them [Ferraro, Pilkenton, and Rincón] so much, and to be in the same year as they’re getting awards is pretty amazing,” she said. According to Pilkenton, the service award is “how we contribute to the University and our disciplines at large.” Pilkenton said she has served on committees, such as the Academic Policies Committee and University Curriculum Committee. She was department chair for three years and took over the graduate program in food and nutrition. She also was on the union executive board and has contributed to outreach programs. She said faculty from the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics departments “would run a weekend experience for middleschool-age girls and their moms who would come in and do some experiments and learn about science.” Pilkenton said her favorite part of being involved is “getting to know my colleagues, and getting to know
more about the University.” “When I saw that email, I was kind of shocked and I just felt honored that my colleagues nominated me for it. I work hard because I want Framingham State to be a great place, and I’m glad that my hard work has been recognized,” said Pilkenton. Rincón said her work in CELTSS focused on creating “community to work with students and really teaching the students in front of us. “With that I mean really understanding where they are coming from, what their previous experiences were before coming to Framingham State, how those experiences, depending on where they are coming from, really shaped what happens in the classroom, and how those experiences can enrich any topic that we’re learning about,” she added. According to Rincón, her favorite part of teaching is when the group is “connected” and “everyone is connected … to the topic that we are discussing. “That’s hard to get, but when I get it, I know that I’m doing a good job I’m serving my students in the right way,” she added. “It’s a huge recognition … but it’s also a reminder that I have to keep pushing,” said Rincón. “I have to keep learning about how to do my job well, because there’s a lot to learn.”
do that, then have an Instagram page for your work as a design student. Even in another major, you should show off the work you are doing and give yourself the best platform for that. … I know some people do not like to have an online presence, but even a little bit of it can give you a leg up and edge when applying for jobs.
cosplayer. I cosplay characters from Disney to Harry Potter and I am a huge endorser of it. I cosplay with my parents or my sister and we go to the conventions together to dress up as characters. I am always happy, excited, and open to talk about cosplay with anyone and if any students who are reading this want to reach out to me about cosplay, please do.
CONNECT WITH ASHLYN KELLY akelly8@student.framingham.edu
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that comes to fruition.
FSU was where I wanted to come back to work when I started graduate school, and now that I am here, I am in it for the long haul. I have a lot of big plans that I have set forward such as what classes to teach, independent studies I want to run, and workshops to do at FSU. I am hoping that in fi e years ha e tenure and I have published a couple of papers and made more interesting wearable art pieces. Also, I hope to have gotten to teach some classes that I have always wanted to teach. So, I am hoping
What advice can you give to students and the FSU community about COVID-19? Advice you can give seniors? I think it is important to curate your online persona. As much as we are so annoyed with being online all the time lately, it really is a strong and useful tool for you as a new graduate. Even while you are in school, start to make an online presence such as with a website to have an online portfolio and keep it updated. If you do not want to
Weather
What is something students would be interested in knowing about you? A big thing that students can get surprised about is that I am an active
CONNECT WITH CAROLINE LANNI clanni@student.framingham.edu
Forecast provided by the National Weather Service www.weather.gov
Sunday night April 4 Mostly clear. Low near 40. NW winds around 10 mph.
Monday night April 5 Partly cloudy. Low near 40. NW winds around 10 mph.
Tuesday night April 6 Mostly cloudy. Low near 40. Light northwest wind.
Wednesday night April 7 Partly cloudy. Low near 40. E winds around 5 mph.
Monday April 5 Mostly sunny. High near 55. NW winds around 10 mph.
Tuesday April 6 Mostly sunny. High near 55. N winds around 10 mph.
Wednesday April 7 Mostly sunny. High near 60. NW winds around 5 mph.
Thursday April 8 Partly cloudy. High near 50. N wind around 5 mph.
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