Professor Véronique Tomaszewski to be honoured with teaching award at the Glendon Convocation

Glendon Campus Professor Véronique Tomaszewski, along with three equally exceptional faculty members, will be presented with teaching awards during York University’s Spring Convocation ceremonies. Tomaszewski, a contract faculty member who teaches sociology will receive the President’s University-Wide Teaching Award in the Contract and Adjunct Faculty category at the Glendon Convocation on June 24.

The award recipients, each of whom demonstrated exceptional and innovative teaching methods, were selected by the Senate Committee on Awards for their significant contribution to enhancing the quality of learning for York students.

“These recipients exemplify the qualities of teaching excellence and innovation that have established York as a leader in 21st-century postsecondary education,” said York University President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri. “On behalf of the University, I congratulate them on this achievement, and thank them for their commitment to enhancing student learning at York.”

Nominated by her students, Tomaszewski is known for empowering her students to think critically, to be congruent with their deep values and she encourages them to become socially engaged. Students comment that she listens and pays close attention to their needs and encourages them to pursue their path to self-discovery and empowerment. In the classroom, she strives to mirror the real world by analyzing case studies from current events and news. She also makes an extensive use of social media. Her Moodle course sites, for example, blend with students’ reality and their increasing participation and expansion of social media.

“The impact that she has left will last long after I graduate,” writes one of her student nominators. “Véronique has exemplified the virtues and wisdom that my class would all like to embody as we enter the next stage of our identity development, and into our various postsecondary pursuits. We plan to bring the lessons of mindfulness and self-reflection that we learned during the duration of her class into our future endeavours.”

Each award winner will receive $3,000 and will have their names engraved on the President’s University-Wide Teaching Awards plaque in Vari Hall.

The purpose of the President’s University-Wide Teaching Awards is to provide significant recognition for excellence in teaching, to encourage its pursuit, to publicize such excellence when achieved across the University and in the wider community, and to promote informed discussion of teaching and its improvement. The awards demonstrate the value York University attaches to teaching.