ISU recognizes its most outstanding teachers each year through the Outstanding University Teacher Award program.

By honoring its instructors, the university demonstrates its commitment to teaching excellence and student learning. This awards program embraces the view that the best teachers likely have a talent for teaching and have methodically and consistently worked overtime to enhance their teaching knowledge, skills, and abilities.

This encompasses persistent, focused, and purposeful dedication to striving for excellence over time and includes learning about and applying effective instructional practices across a wide range of teaching activities, evaluating the effectiveness of those practices, and reflecting on personal values and professional experiences to shape future teaching practices.

On December 2, The University Teaching Committee selected Professor Mike Hendricks as a recipient for one of the five award programs, the Outstanding University Teacher Award-Teaching Initiative Award. This category recognizes pre-tenure professors who have shown considerable promise in teaching early in their academic careers.