{"id":5970,"date":"2017-04-13T15:37:35","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T19:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/news\/?p=5970"},"modified":"2017-04-13T15:38:51","modified_gmt":"2017-04-13T19:38:51","slug":"spence-named-2017-kreider-prize-for-teaching-recipient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2017\/04\/13\/spence-named-2017-kreider-prize-for-teaching-recipient\/","title":{"rendered":"Spence named 2017 Kreider Prize for Teaching recipient"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Typical of the generous mindset of Robert Spence, when Kristi Kneas stopped by in early April 2017 with a huge smile brightening her face, he thought she came to tell him good news about students.<\/p>\n

The dean for academic affairs and faculty development at Elizabethtown College brought good news, indeed. But it was not about students, directly.<\/p>\n

Spence, a tenured associate professor of music and director of instrumental studies, had been selected for the College\u2019s 2017 Kreider Prize for Teaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was setting up for band rehearsal when she dropped that news on me,\u201d Spence said. \u201cI was overwhelmed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kreider Prize for Teaching, named in honor of J. Kenneth Kreider, professor of history emeritus, and Carroll L. Kreider, professor of business emerita, for their inspirational service to students at Elizabethtown College, is made possible each year by the generosity of one of their previous students.<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s my turn to pay it forward.\u201d<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI am grateful to our donor, Dr. Thomas Conner, who has made the annual award possible in order that we may celebrate that which we value,\u201d said Kneas. \u201cGiven our emphasis on excellence in teaching at Elizabethtown College, it is a great privilege for us to be able to recognize our most outstanding teachers in such a public way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nominations come, in writing, from alumni, students and faculty and staff members. The Kreider Prize selection committee, comprising students and Professional Development Committee members, chooses the recipient from the nominees.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Kreider Prize Award recipient letter that the Selection Committee submitted, it was suggested that Dr. Spence embodies the E-town \u201cX Factor\u201d to which, part of our institutional success in the Brookings Institute study was attributed,\u201d Kneas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, there\u2019s little mystery as to why Spence is worthy of this prestigious honor,\u201d she added. The award committee and nominating letters \u201cmade explicitly clear that his dedication, passion and servant leadership, combined with his ability to provide a welcoming, challenging and effective learning environment have inspired students to do their best possible work and to be the best versions of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spence earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in music education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, his master\u2019s degree in music–trombone performance from Syracuse University and his doctoral degree in musical arts–wind band conducting from Michigan State University.<\/p>\n

He previously, was an instructor for Westmont Hilltop and Oley Valley school districts in Pennsylvania and he was on the faculty at Sam Houston State University in Texas, Simpson College in Iowa and Albright College and Millersville University in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Spence\u2019s philosophy, he said, is, first and foremost, student-centered. \u201cI wish to freely pass on the information given to me. It\u2019s my turn to pay it forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

At E-town, Spence conducts the Symphonic Band, the College-Community Orchestra and teaches courses in woodwind, brass and percussion methods, instrumental music methods and conducting and arranging. He leads a jazz music history First-Year Seminar. In addition to teaching, he and his wife, Wendie, own E-town\u2019s Spence Candies.<\/p>\n

\u201cBand and Orchestra are special courses for me because they also involve E-town students who are not music majors,\u201d Spence said. \u201cWe also have orchestra members\u00a0from the extended Elizabethtown\/Lancaster community.\u00a0\u2026 These kinds of\u00a0people are the life’s blood of any performing ensemble; they\u00a0serve to\u00a0remind those of us who do this professionally that making music just for the love of\u00a0it is a terrific and worthwhile\u00a0thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Typical of the generous mindset of Robert Spence, when Kristi Kneas stopped by in early April 2017 with a huge smile brightening her face, he thought she came to tell him good news about students. The dean for academic affairs and faculty development at Elizabethtown College brought good news, indeed. But it was not about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":5974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[178,8],"tags":[490,1128,54],"class_list":["post-5970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-achievements","category-features","tag-achievements-2","tag-feature","tag-music","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5970"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5977,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5970\/revisions\/5977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}