Roaring Fork Campus’s Ron Leach earns collegewide adjunct faculty of the year honors; Sara Smith is campus full-time faculty of the year
By Mike McKibbin & Beth Zukowski
Ron Leach doesn’t like surprises, according to his wife. You might think he’s gotten used to them, since as Carbondale’s fire chief he’s responded to two decades’ worth of spur-of-the-moment fire and medical calls.
But one recent surprise left him speechless, when the Emergency Medical Technician-Basic class that Leach teaches for Colorado Mountain College at the Carbondale firehouse was interrupted to honor him as the collegewide adjunct faculty of the year.
After college President Dr. Stan Jensen presented Leach with a small statue and a $600 check to help pay for professional development or training, the fire chief found himself at a loss for words.
“I had no idea this would happen,” he said. “It’s a very great surprise. I’m speechless.”
Later, Leach credited college nursing professor Maureen Nuckols with inspiring him to teach future EMTs.
“I took my first class with her around 1978 and I’ve taught nearly every year since then,” he said.
The reward of teaching such life-saving and technical skills comes in “opening doors for young people and seeing them make a living as EMTs,” Leach added.
Every year each of Colorado Mountain College’s seven campuses, as well as the college’s department of online learning, can nominate an adjunct (part-time) and a full-time faculty member. From those honorees, senior administrators then select a collegewide award recipient in each of the two categories.
Rapport, experience key to success
In the nomination of Leach for the adjunct honoree at the Roaring Fork Campus – which includes the college’s sites in Glenwood Springs, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs-Spring Valley – director of continuing education Mary Clement praised his relationship with students.
“Ron has an excellent rapport with his students as they learn everything from the circulatory system, to how to work as a team in the back of an ambulance, and how to maneuver around an emergency room. He is patient, extremely dedicated and knowledgeable,” Clement wrote.
Linda Crockett, instructional chair at the campus, Leach’s supervisor and fellow nominator, said, “Ron is dedicated to his students’ success. He makes it his mission to hone their skills to provide the best possible emergency medical service to the community.”
Leach’s students added their praise to the nomination, as well.
“His real world experience is vital in prepping a new EMT for the field,” wrote one student. “He wants everyone to succeed, and come out of the class an asset to our communities.”
“For such a difficult subject, he brings it to a beginner level so you understand, and before you know it you are understanding at the difficult level,” said another.
Smith, a ‘star,’ captures full-time faculty honors for campus
Dr. Sara Smith is número uno among faculty at Colorado Mountain College’s Roaring Fork Campus, which includes sites in Glenwood Springs, Carbondale and Spring Valley. The associate professor of Spanish has earned the campus’s top honor as full-time faculty member of the year.
Smith teaches all levels of conversational and transfer-level Spanish classes to a wide range of students, varying in age and in their reasons for wanting to learn Spanish.
Spanish-speaking skills are undoubtedly among the most in-demand skills in the 21st century marketplace. But Smith is quick to say that learning Spanish “opens up so many opportunities beyond expanding job possibilities.”
“There are new places to go, new people to meet, even within our own community,” she said. “There are more movies to see, more novels to read, new music to hear, new ways to dance.”
“I love to see stereotypes breaking down as students discover and appreciate Spanish-speaking cultures,” she adds.
Smith’s students also include native Spanish speakers whose school experiences have been mostly focused on English language learning. Smith developed a new Heritage Spanish course for these young students to advance their first-language skills.
In a 2009 “CMC Corner” column she wrote for the Glenwood Springs Post Independent, Smith tackled the myth that the adult brain is not as well primed as the child’s brain for learning a second language. “Adults learn languages more quickly,” she argued, “because they possess a deeper knowledge of their first language, greater interest in the world around them, and greater motivation to learn.”
Smith has recently taken up learning French, giving herself a fresh perspective on learning a new language so she can better relate to the experience of beginning language learners in her classes.
A ‘ferocious’ commitment to CMC students and more
Smith’s new honor is least of all a surprise to her students. When given the chance to rate her class, students give her an A+.
“Sara is a star,” “Sara is top-notch” and “Sara is a great teacher and a great aspect to this school” are common sentiments shared by her students in class evaluations.
Adrian Fielder, instructional chair for the humanities at the campus, sums up Sara’s relationship to her students in this way: “She is someone who is ferociously committed to their success, who simultaneously has the warmth and sincerity to bring out the most ferocious commitment on their part, as well.”
Smith’s commitment goes well beyond the classroom. She is the lead faculty member in Spanish at the campus, and she is the Spanish discipline coordinator for the entire college. In both roles, she provides guidance to others who teach Spanish.
Her commitment also extends beyond Colorado Mountain College. Smith has catalyzed a discussion with Spanish instructors at other community colleges to revise the set of outcomes within the state’s official Spanish course syllabi in a much more meaningful way. Thanks to that initiative, her work is enhancing the learning of students in classrooms across the entire state of Colorado.