Banquet Scheduled to Honor Visiting Cherry Professors Sept. 26

WACO, Texas - Baylor University will honor a master social studies teacher from Walnut, Calif., and a biochemistry professor from St. Paul, Minn., during the sixth annual Robert Foster Cherry Awards Banquet at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26, in the Barfield Drawing Room of the Bill Daniel Student Center.
Alan Paul Haskvitz and Dr. Clare Woodward are the 1996 recipients of the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching. They will share equally an award of $25,000 and will present a series of lectures at Baylor.
Haskvitz will be a guest teacher-in-residence for the Baylor School of Education during the week of Sept. 23-27. Woodward will attend the banquet and return to Baylor in February to teach a series of classes for the Department of Biology.
The Cherry Award for Great Teachers has been awarded traditionally to professors in higher education, but keeping the original intent of the late Robert Foster Cherry to honor great teachers from all areas of education, Baylor selected Haskvitz as the first middle school educator to receive this award.
Haskvitz teaches history and serves as Social Studies Department Head at Suzanne Middle School, Walnut Unified School District, in Los Angeles County, Calif. He is the only history teacher who has received the national awards for both the best program and for the best methods. The National Council for Social Studies, one of the largest educational organizations in the world, presented these honors to Haskvitz, who also has been selected as one of the top teachers in the United States by different groups in the field of education.
Haskvitz holds degrees in four different areas and credentials to teach English, history, social studies, special education, gifted education, journalism, business and administration.
Students of Haskvitz routinely engage in activities such as charting the growth of plants in a "Feed the Homeless" garden, producing a video presentation on the Pledge of Allegiance, or devising a plan for the city to save 23 million gallons a year. When his students could not

understand the voting rules for the County of Los Angeles they rewrote them and the new rules were accepted and used by the Registrar of Voters.
Woodward has been with the University of Minnesota biochemistry department since 1970. She received her bachelor of arts degree from Smith College in 1963 and doctorate from Rice University in 1967.
She has made a number of major contributions to the field of hydrogen isotope exchange in proteins and in the field of protein dynamics by proposing a new mechanism for hydrogen exchange. Woodward also played a lead role in the developing of a state-of-the-art curriculum for the university's undergraduate biochemistry course.
Woodward has been praised for her effectiveness in helping women and students of color become motivated and prepared for careers in science. Her experience with these students and careful attention to their needs has resulted in the successful program (Biology Club) which helps high-ability undergraduate students of color excel in math and science courses.
Selection criteria for the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teachers includes a demonstration of extraordinary teaching abilities and a record of positive, inspiring and long-lasting effects on students. The recipients also are required to be scholars with national and international achievements.
The late Cherry, a graduate of Baylor in 1929 and the Baylor School of Law in 1933, established the awards to honor great teachers. The award is given annually to outstanding professors in the English-speaking world who are distinguished for their ability to communicate as classroom teachers. The awards are believed to be the largest monetary teaching awards in the United States.
For more information, contact the Cherry Awards office at (817) 755-2923.