Computer Science professor honored with teaching excellence award
June 2, 2022, Blue Bell/Pottstown, Pa.— For in excess of two a long time, Dr. Kendall Martin has been introducing her college students at Montgomery County Neighborhood Faculty to a new superpower you won’t come across within the pages of a comic ebook. The Laptop Science professor has aided them find the entire likely of technological know-how that surrounds them and learn to use it ways they in no way dreamed achievable, modifying their life for good.
In a typical case in point, one particular previous university student informed Dr. Martin she thought she was destined to devote her daily life functioning as a beautician in a hair salon prior to taking a Computer Science study course.
“Everybody in her family members explained ‘You’re no great at engineering. That is for your brother. Why do not you go find out to do hair?’” mentioned Dr. Martin of Lansdale. “And now she’s at Lockheed Martin, performing as a computer programmer. So, you can begin to see your self in a diverse gentle and see a unique upcoming for on your own. When you see you can be taught how to do these points, then you have it. It is your superpower and you can use it having said that you want. That can be a everyday living-shifting moment.”
Dr. Martin’s attempts to adjust the life of her pupils for the better is now becoming celebrated. At this year’s Commencement ceremonies, she was named the receiver of the 2022 Gladys and Raymond Pearlstine Award for Teaching Excellence.
The award recognizes a whole-time school member whose instructing is intellectually stimulating, available for all pupils, and demonstrates a dedication to the properly-staying of students each within and outdoors of the classroom.
Understanding she’d been named the receiver of the award was “thrilling,” she reported and felt like she was “walking on air.”
“The reason the award usually means so substantially to me is that the legacy of names on that checklist of earlier recipients is incredible,” reported Dr. Martin. “It’s this kind of an honor to be capable to see that team of individuals and to know how a lot of men and women have devoted all of their professions to assisting the learners in Montgomery County and producing the adventure of mastering be part of someone’s life. It’s a excellent point to have a purpose in that legacy.”
Martin’s legacy commenced 23 years in the past when she accepted a posture at MCCC, pursuing past training stints at Ursinus College and Villanova University. She also labored formerly at Texas Instruments and Bell Laboratories.
“I commenced finding into training when my children ended up born,” she explained.
Dr. Martin, who retains a doctoral diploma in Engineering, from the University of Pennsylvania, fell in enjoy with Computer Science, not only for its intellectual troubles, but also the selection of career pathways it opens for college students and its geographic versatility.
“It’s just this sort of a wonderful stepping-stone for students coming into the local community faculty to sort of go their lifetime in a route that provides them a ton of management and problem,” she explained. “A ton of our learners arrive in beneath resourced in publicity to technologies, in practical experience and self-assurance in arithmetic, and so they shy absent from Pc Science. So, I’ve seriously worked challenging to consider and draft people today and get them into the pipeline. If they get a supported knowledge, a great deal of them find it’s a terrific match for their passions.”
In excess of the years, Dr. Martin has arrive up with one of a kind and imaginative techniques to expose distinctive groups of pupils to Pc Science outside the house the classroom, commencing at an early age.
In 2018, she and Seem Recording and Tunes Technology ( SRT) Instructor Jen Mitlas, launched a Pennsylvania chapter of Beats by Girlz for learners in the Middle for Tradition, Artwork, Training and Education and learning ( CCATE) in Norristown. The software is a non-traditional, imaginative way of finding out new music that was began at the Berklee College of Songs by Affiliate Professor Erin Barra-Jean. She wrote a audio curriculum in response to the small numbers of women of all ages coming into the field and applied the Abelton Force, a new electronic instrument, to stimulate girls’ interest in audio.
Pursuing the achievement of their system, Dr. Martin and Mitlas then successfully introduced Beats by Girlz applications at The Pathway School, a faculty for students predominantly on the autism spectrum The Lakeside Women Academy, which delivers knowledgeable instructing for ladies who’ve experienced traumatic ordeals The Crefeld University, a personal significant school in Chestnut Hill and a summer months method for women at the North Wales Region Library and at Abington Senior Significant College. Dr. Martin and Mitlas then transitioned from educating the software directly to coaching college and workers at just about every faculty to operate it on their own.
In 2021, Dr. Martin and Mitlas introduced a new training course at the Faculty referred to as “The Language of Digital Media,” which teaches learners to use state-of-the-art applications in digital audio and video creation. Then as the pandemic ongoing to rage, the two girls began hosting “ Montco@House,” a virtual job interview collection on electronic audio manufacturing, that includes artists from all around the world. Dr. Martin and Mitlas had been awarded an MCCC 2020-2021 Yr of Finding out Innovation Grant for their attempts.
Most lately, Dr. Martin aided start Java Bootcamp, a four-7 days, no cost on-line training course in coding and laptop or computer programming taught by college students during summer season and winter breaks to give Personal computer Science students a refresh in material they’d shortly be studying in the approaching semester. The system is run via the Ladies In Science and Technology ( WIST) system, of which Dr. Martin is a member, and funded by the WIST/STEM department. At its begin in summertime 2021, the method had 10 students in attendance. When it was provided yet again throughout wintertime break, attendance for the course quadrupled.
Exterior of her perform to encourage the Pc Science method, Dr. Martin was also identified for helping encourage other campus wellness heart means that support college students, including cost-free on the internet treatment with TimelyMD and online tutoring out there 24 several hours a day, 7 times a week for pupils.
Dr. Martin saluted the College’s administration for supporting these kinds of applications and aiding bring them to fruition. For decades, she reported, faculty users would be on the entrance strains helplessly observing college students battle. Now they can present hope.
“I’m grateful to the administration for all the operate they’ve finished to produce this set of assets,” she mentioned. “Now we can stroll up to college students who are having difficulties and give them some alternatives. If you give them an alternative, they’ll run with it. I’m content to see the full photograph of a scholar is viewed and supported.”
For the duration of Graduation, Dr. Gloria Oikelome, Vice President of Tutorial Affairs, read through quotes from some of Dr. Martin’s students, who praised her super heroic ability to get them as enthusiastic as she is about Computer system Science and for her hardly ever-ending fight to see them all be successful.
“She is so passionate about laptop science and teaching to students!” wrote a single college student. “She wishes to see her learners triumph. I really like it when she will get fired up with us when we figure out how to do one thing.”
“She consistently told us about all of the diverse resources pupils at Montco have,” mentioned a different student. “Even although it was not instantly related to coding, she nevertheless manufactured certain every person understood about the psychological well being sources available, and it helped me drastically.”
“Dr. Martin has labored more than the previous summertime and winter breaks to arrange and run an on line Java Bootcamp that is open to all programming college students,” reported one particular pupil.
One more college student shared that “Dr. Martin is an exceptional professor and mentor. She is always pushing me to do much better and acknowledging my difficult get the job done.”
With the Pearlstine award now in hand, Dr. Martin reported she’s arranging a sabbatical to develop upon the interactions she’s produced in Norristown and continuing to encourage the digital music application at the School. She’s also psyched for the start of the Challenger Finding out Center at Pottstown Campus this fall and by now has tips for her pupils to produce interactive museum parts for the area. Last of all, she strategies to continue tutoring students on the autistic spectrum in digital tunes to broaden their abilities in technology and unlock their creativeness.
“I’m energized about how quite a few issues could materialize around the upcoming 10 years,” she claimed. “I’m wanting ahead to the upcoming 10 years.”
Prepared by Eric Devlin
Image 1 caption: Montgomery County Local community Faculty Vice President of Tutorial Affairs Dr. Gloria Oikelome provides the Gladys and Raymond Pearlstine Teaching Excellence Award to Professor of Computer system Science Dr. Kendall Martin through MCCC’s 55th Commencement ceremonies. Image by David DeBalko
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For much more than 57 many years, Montgomery County Community Higher education has grown with the neighborhood to satisfy the evolving academic needs of Montgomery County. The College’s extensive curriculum involves far more than 100 associate degree and certificate applications, as nicely as customized workforce education and certifications. College students enjoy the overall flexibility of learning at the College’s thriving campuses in Blue Bell and Pottstown, at the Culinary Arts Institute in Lansdale, and on line.
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