Human services associate professor, Kenin Krieger, wins regional Ivy Tech teaching award

 BLOOMINGTON – Ivy Tech Community College’s Bloomington campus has selected Kenin Krieger, associate professor of human services, as the 2016 recipient of Ivy Tech’s President’s Award for Excellence in Instruction. She was selected among 53 other full-time faculty nominees.

Krieger’s student nominations highlighted her engaging teaching style in the classroom and her passion for student outcomes.

“Kenin is involved on campus and dedicated to all of our students,” said Jennie Vaughan, chancellor of Ivy Tech Bloomington. “She hosts an annual service-learning project for the whole campus and enthusiastically co-chairs the diversity committee. Kenin works hard to bring inclusion into the learning environment.”

In her psychology classes, Krieger incorporates service-learning projects, such as students hosting screenings on campus for depression and other mood disorders. Depression Screening Day has become an annual event in which some students are referred to professional mental health services hosted on campus, in partnership with Indiana University.

In addition to her teaching duties inside of the classroom, Krieger leads diversity programming for students outside of the classroom. For the 2016-17 academic year, she organized inclusive events, speakers, activities and training opportunities. Some diversity programs include the Human Library Project, a Celebrate Diversity! Festival, a transgender training session, and poverty awareness. She also organized bringing a national scholar to campus to discuss breaking down barriers related to institutional racism.

To ensure that graduates are contributing members of the community, students in the human services program at Ivy Tech Bloomington work internships with outside organizations to prepare them for the workforce upon graduation. Graduates of the program are currently employed at various service agencies, including the local school corporation, and homeless and domestic violence shelters.

One of Krieger’s students recently utilized space at the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center, downtown, to host a talent show in support of the local homeless population.

In her nominations, a student wrote, “Dr. K wants us to succeed, pushes us to become better students, and better human beings.”

The President’s Award is given annually to a full-time faculty member from each of the 14 regions of the College. As the recipient of this award, Krieger is also the nominee for the statewide Ivy Tech Mary Catherine and Glenn W. Sample Award for Excellence in Instruction, to be presented by the College in June. The Sample Award is presented to one full-time faculty member statewide who best typifies the teaching and learning mission of the College.