Schools
MCC Professor Named 'Best. Teacher. Ever!'
Dr. Negussie Tirfessa was recently named the winner of the Best. Teacher. Ever! contest, which was sponsored by ITVS, an affiliate of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
This is one year that Dr. Negussie Tirfessa, Ph.D., will never forget. In the spring, the physics professor at Manchester Community College received recognition for excellence in teaching from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development. But the accolades did not stop there.
Tirfessa was nominated by his student Cordelia Vahadji for the Best. Teacher. Ever! contest, and then in late June, Tirfessa was named the contest’s winner. As a result, he was rewarded with a Kindle, which he ended up giving to Vahadji.
The contest was sponsored by the Independent Television Service (ITVS), an affiliate of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. After narrowing the field to five finalists, ITVS opened up the voting on their website, Beyond the Box, and Tirfessa received the most votes.
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Tirfessa, who was born in Ethiopia and now lives in Manchester with his family, said he was quite surprised when he learned that he won the contest.
“It was very, very exciting,” the physics professor said. “I want to thank Cordelia so much for nominating me. I’m really glad she enjoyed my teaching and my course.”
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As mentioned before, there were five finalists for this contest. Vahadji, who took Physics 1 with Tirfessa, undertook the nomination process herself and then informed MCC about how Tirfessa was one of the finalists.
“She brought it to our attention that he was a finalist, and then we shared the news with our campus community,” Charlene Tappan, director of marketing and public relations at MCC, said. “We internally spread the word to friends and family, so they could vote for him.”
On the voting website, Vahadji wrote a few paragraphs about how Tirfessa has affected and inspired her. The student said how Tirfessa forced the class to be actively engaged from the very first minutes.
“He would never just give an answer, but fully engage me and my fellow classmates in taking a stab at it, forcing us to explain our logic, and then questioning us as a means of redirecting our thinking,” Vahadji wrote about Tirfessa. “This is how real learning takes place, not to mention this is how passion for the subject is spread from teacher to student.”
Tappan said that MCC students are always giving positive feedback about the physics professor. She said it’s clear that Tirfessa has made a connection with the students.
“You go into his class, and you see all the computers at every station and all the experiments he has set up,” Tappan said. “He has a very interactive class. The students are learning by doing, not just from a lecture.”
Vahadji also wrote about how Tirfessa is one of the hardest workers and how he truly dedicates himself to his profession.
“He is at the college before many have even woken up, laboring over grading each and every student lab and assignment with precise commentary,” the student wrote. “Professor Tirfessa sets the bar high for teaching, but even higher for learning.”
When Tirfessa studied in Ethiopia, he received a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Physics at Addis Ababa University. He then taught physics at the same university for six years, which he said was quite the honor and privilege, and he hasn’t stopped teaching since.
“When you go through a course and see them grasp and master the subject, it’s always very rewarding,” Tirfessa said. “There are a lot of exciting things in physics, and I enjoy sharing my passion and excitement with the students.”
He said that he finds physics interesting because of all the topics that are applicable in everyday life.
“There are a lot of things that the students can relate to, and they are able to grasp the subject better,” Tirfessa said. “There are many physics principles at work behind all of our technological advances, like cell phones and GPS, so it is very relatable.”
Tirfessa came to the U.S. to study at Ohio State University in 1995. He then graduated with a Ph.D. in Theoretical Nuclear Physics in 2001 and joined MCC as a physics professor in 2002. He currently lives in Manchester with his wife and two children.
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