Sarver honored as Humanities Teacher of the Year
Senatobia, MS (03/08/2023) — Northwest Mississippi Community College humanities instructor Dr. Jay Sarver has been selected as a Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC) Teacher of the Year.
The Mississippi Humanities Council has been recognizing outstanding instructors at Mississippi's colleges and universities since 1995. Sarver is among a group of recipients who were honored statewide. He was nominated by Leelee Haraway, district director of Humanities Instruction at Northwest.
"Dr. Sarver exemplifies the phrase 'caring educator'," said Haraway. "He sets high expectations for students, then guides them through the complexity of the material with detailed explanation. When students participate in class discussion, he encourages them and attempts to connect with the perspective they are sharing. The word students use most often to describe Dr. Sarver is 'helpful'."
As part of his MHC honor, Sarver gave a public lecture March 1 in the Haraway Center on the Senatobia campus. The topic of his lecture was "Reflections on Teaching the Human Experience Through Poetry." During his presentation, he discussed his experiences with teaching poetry in British and American literature survey courses. His main focus was the poetry of Edward Taylor, a Puritan American poet whose poems were particularly personal and provide students with an opportunity to understand a writer's perspective on the human experience. Sarver also discussed the challenges of teaching poetry and reflected on how those challenges make the teaching of poetry a rewarding experience for the instructor and students.
"I chose to talk about this topic based on my recent experiences with teaching American literature this past fall semester," Sarver said. "I feel honored to have received this award based on the recommendation of my district director and with the support of my colleagues."
Sarver currently teaches English composition, American literature, and British literature courses at Northwest. He is also the eLearning coordinator for Humanities and has completed ACUE certification, higher education's only nationally recognized teaching credential, endorsed by the American Council on Education.
Sarver received his bachelor's degree from York College of Pennsylvania in 2003 and his master's degree from State University of New York-Binghamton in 2005. After completing his Ph.D. in literature and criticism at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2012, he taught English composition at Eastern Kentucky University and Bluegrass Community and Technical College. He has been teaching at Northwest since August of 2016.
"We are very excited to honor Dr. Sarver for his outstanding teaching," said Dr. Stuart Rockoff, executive director of the Mississippi Humanities Council. "We do this because we think it is really important to recognize the importance of the humanities on our college campuses and the importance that teachers have. The humanities are vital in helping to create engaged and informed citizens."
The Mississippi Humanities Council is a non-profit organization supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities that hosts a wide variety of humanities programs across the state to help citizens explore Mississippi's rich history and culture. Its mission is to create opportunities for Mississippians to learn more about themselves and the larger world and to enrich communities through civil conversations about history and culture. For more information, visit mshumanities.org.
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Northwest Mississippi Community College humanities instructor Dr. Jay Sarver (third from left) was honored as the college’s Mississippi Humanities Council Teacher of the Year during his public lecture March 1. Congratulating Sarver are (from left) Dr. Carolyn Wiley, associate vice president of Academic Instruction and Institutional Effectiveness; Dr. Stuart Rockoff, executive director of Mississippi Humanities Council; Dr. Michael Heindl, Northwest president; Leelee Haraway, district director of Humanities Instruction; and Dr. Matthew Domas, vice president of Instruction and College Parallel Programs. Photo by Julie Bauer