News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Tennessee Tech Professor Julie Baker recognized with the OVC’s inaugural Outstanding Faculty Commitment to Student Success Award.
The Associate Dean of the School of Education has served at Tech for some 17 years. She said student success begins with the social connections students build in Putnam County. Baker said one student stuck with her.
“So I walked with him that day to the library and back over to our building to introduce him to his academic adviser,” Baker said. “And you know, just told myself I need to keep up with this kid. He has nobody here. His family is seven hours away. And fast forward, he’s a senior now.”
Baker said she sometimes assists students to find resources to cover expenses, food from the campus pantry, or money for textbooks. It comes down to whatever is needed in the situation.
“Sometimes having a student over to your home to cook them dinner for Easter or for other holidays or Thanksgiving or some other time during the semester that students have gone home, Baker said. “That’s definitely a hardship that some of our students have had.”
Each OVC member institution had the opportunity to nominate a faculty member with the rank of associate or full-time professor who have been employed at the institution for at least five years. Criteria included impacts of students, contributions made to the department, university and curriculum development, consistent professional development as well as community involvement and institutional service.
“Sometimes students don’t necessarily need academic support,” Baker said. “Sometimes it’s other things. It’s life experience that they just don’t have yet.”
Baker said from helping students get into a dentist to setting up a bank account, she sees her role as working with the total student.
