Schwer and Smith Honored with Faculty Recognition Awards

Fairmont State University and Pierpont Community & Technical College recently honored Dr. Angela Schwer and Kevin Z. Smith with Faculty Recognition Awards.

The awards were presented during a reception at the Ruth Ann Musick Library. The Faculty Development Committee selects outstanding faculty members each year to receive the awards. The winners are selected because of their clear commitment to continuing development in their fields and service to their community.

"It is appropriate for us as a community of scholars to take time to celebrate the achievements of individual faculty members and reflect on how those individual contributions add to the strength and vitality of the university as a whole," said FSU Interim President Charles J. McClain. "It is also an appropriate time to renew our own sense of responsibility to contribute to an environment that nurtures and recognizes excellence."

 

Dr. Angela Schwer

Schwer with FSU Interim President Charles J. McClain

Dr. Angela Schwer has been a faculty member in the FSU Department of Language & Literature since 1997. A former junior high school teacher, she completed her Ph.D. in English at the University of Notre Dame in 1996, when she defended her doctoral dissertation, "Religious and Imperialist Discourse in Nineteenth-Century British Popular Missionary Travel Narratives," analyzing the Muscular Christianity of missionaries such as David Livingstone and their impact on attitudes towards imperialism at home in Britain.

Schwer continues to remain active in Victorian Studies, presenting papers at the North American Victorian Studies Association Conference and the North East Victorian Studies Conference. She particularly enjoys archival research and has delved usefully into the resources of the British Library, the Library of Congress, Indiana University Library and the Cambridge University Library to support her cultural studies/old historical approach to literature. As a result of receiving a National Endowment for the Humanities Seminar Grant in 2002, her continuing project is a history of the origins of Liberal Education for the working classes at the London Working Men's College.

This scholarly interest has recently intersected with her service to FSU. Schwer has been the Chair of the joint General Studies Committee for the last four years, during which time the committee devised outcomes for the proposed outcomes-based General Studies program.

While at FSU, Schwer has taught freshman writing courses, sophomore literature courses and English major courses. Her other campus activities include advising and conferencing with students. She was the recipient of the 2006 Academic Advising Award. She also serves as co-sponsor of the GEAR UP Honors Quiz Bowl held every fall for GEAR UP honor students.

Schwer's display case at the Ruth Ann Musick Library

 

 

Kevin Z. Smith

 

Kevin Z. Smith has been a faculty member in the Pierpont Community & Technical College School of Academic Studies since 2004.

Smith teaches news reporting, design and layout, photography and introduction to mass communications, and oversees the production of the student newspaper, The Columns, and the Mound, the institutions' centennial yearbook.

Smith earned a B.S.J. in journalism from West Virginia University in 1979 and an M.A. in mass communications from Miami University (Ohio). He has served in a variety of professional writing capabilities: as a sportswriter for the Grafton Mountain Statesman; as a business reporter for the Parkersburg Sentinel; as an assistant sports editor for the Times West Virginian; and at the Morgantown Dominion Post in a variety of reporting and editing positions. Smith also worked at United Hospital Center in Clarksburg as public relations director. He was a reporter for Bloomberg Financial News' wire service in Washington, D.C., covering health care issues. Smith also worked for the Mountaineer Sports Network, serving as a spotter for the regional television broadcasts of WVU football, and as a statistician for CBS Sports, the Sportschannel and the Big East Sports Network.

In 1995, Smith began teaching at Miami University as a visiting instructor. He returned to Fairmont in 2001 and became the managing editor of the Times West Virginian where he penned a column that earned him national recognition in 2002. In 2007 he authored a book of his local columns titled "Private Thoughts from a Public Nuisance."

During his time at Pierpont, Smith's students have earned 26 national journalism awards from the Society for Collegiate Journalists, including being named the best small college newspaper in the nation in 2007. Five times students have earned national first place awards for writing, design and cartooning.

Smith has been a member of the Society of Professional Journalists since 1979, and served on its ethics committee for 18 years. He will assume the national presidency of that organization in August. Smith has served as an ambassador for SPJ, traveling to Korea and Taiwan to represent American journalists at international conferences on press freedoms. In September, he will represent the U.S. at a conference in Wales on the future of journalism.

Smith is the father of two sons, Ben, a senior at WVU studying business, and Nick, a sophomore pursuing a degree in exercise physiology.

Smith's display case at the Ruth Ann Musick Library