SPC dean receives professor of the year award

Jimmy Chang

Jimmy Chang, Dean of Mathematics, has been named the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and the Florida Two-Year College Mathematics Association (FTYCMA).

“This is the first time I have ever received this award,” said Chang, who will accept the award at the MAA-FTYCMA Joint Conference banquet at the University of Tampa on Friday, Feb. 22. “This is the first time anyone from SPC has been selected. I hope there will be more recipients from SPC in the years to come.”

Chang is a popular math professor who is known for his passion and energy. In 2011, Chang received the Faculty Member of the Year award at the Clearwater Campus. One of his former students, Kelliann Ganoo, said that it is his passion, warmth, excitement and care for his students that make him a deserving candidate of the awards.

“Jimmy Chang is a teacher who helps the students understand mathematics, as opposed to telling them to just memorize theorems,” said Ganoo, Student Support Assistant in Learning Resources at SPC Downtown. During her second year at the college, she had Chang as her math professor for both MAC 1147 and MAC 2311.

Ganoo describes him as one of the pillars of the SPC community.

“Jimmy Chang is an exceptional human being that is an example of SPC’s motto ‘Within Reach,’” Ganoo said. “He lives the core value that the college strives to instill. Jimmy Chang is making SPC and the community a better place through his actions every day.”