Scott Sernau from Indiana University South Bend recently received the 2006 P.A. Mack Award for Distinguished Service to Teaching, which recognizes exemplary contributions to university teaching.

The award is presented annually by the Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching (FACET), a program that recognizes outstanding teaching at the eight IU campuses and provides a forum for interaction and exchange about teaching and learning at Indiana University.

Sernau, who has been teaching for more than 10 years, has pioneered the international programs at IU South Bend and helped establish the promotion of service learning. He has received 11 teaching awards and honors, grants and fellowships.

At the request of the American Sociological Association, he has edited three volumes of the ASA Teaching Resource Center’s Social Stratification Courses: Syllabi and Instructional Materials. The volumes are a resource for instructors seeking to develop or revise social stratification courses.

Nationally, his expertise has been recognized with invited plenary addresses for the New Jersey Project on Inclusive Scholarship, Curriculum and Teaching and the American Council on Education and Farleigh Dickinson University. He has also made presentations related to teaching at the American Sociological Association annual meeting on five separate occasions.

In 2005 Sernau completed a Semester at Sea where he taught sociology courses to college students sailing around the world. He works to promote service learning and to create international learning experiences for students.

He has served as IU South Bend’s FACET co-liaison since 2000 and he is a member of the IU Future Faculty Teaching Fellows Advisory Board. He is also a charter member of The Mack Center at IU for Inquiry on Teaching and Learning.

Mack Award recipients are chosen annually through a nomination and selection process involving FACET award winners who currently teach at IU. Nominees may include persons who have contributed distinguished service to teaching at Indiana University and elsewhere, consistent with the documented goals and ideals of FACET. The winner is recognized at the annual FACET retreat, and invited to share his or her perspectives on teaching and learning with the wider academic community.

30