‘Relatable’ nurse takes out UON Academy Professional Development Prize
More than 50 staff recently gathered at NeW Space for the annual UON Academy End of Year celebration. Hosted by Tina Crawford, Director People and Workforce Strategy, this event celebrates the incredible contributions sessional academic staff make to the student experience.
“Sessional staff are at the coalface of the student experience and therefore should be offered opportunities for engagement, support and development just like any ongoing staff,” said Tina in her official opening of the event.
A highlight was the awarding of the UON Academy Professional Development Prize worth $1000. This is the fourth year the prize has been awarded to a sessional academic staff member who demonstrates teaching excellence. Nominations were received from both staff and students and this year they were of a particularly high calibre.
Congratulations to the 2019 UON Academy Professional Development Award winner, School of Nursing and Midwifery’s, Bethany Porteous. Bethany has worked as a sessional academic at our University since 2017 and has already made a substantial positive impact.
Bethany is known for being a prepared, committed and reliable teacher. Her student feedback identifies that she goes “above and beyond for her students” and is “meticulously organised, intelligent, relatable and most importantly she is the type of nurse that I aspire to be”.
Bethany has high numbers of responses to her student feedback survey and her score is consistently 4.6 or above. Congratulations to Bethany as well as the other award finalists:
- Dr Chloe Killen – School of Creative Industries
- Katy Jones – Centre for English Language and Foundation Studies
- Cheryl Sykes – Newcastle Law School
The UON Academy was established in 2014. It is a sector-leading initiative that seeks to develop, support and engage a highly valued community of sessional/casual academic staff.
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The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.