A teacher on SE Campus is the recipient of a statewide award.

Elise Price, assistant professor of mathematics, was named a Piper Professor for 2010 by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation. The foundation awards $5,000 to 15 professors across Texas every year. Applicants are nominated by their institutions, faculty and administrators.

Price’s husband, David Price, also a SE Campus mathematics professor, won the same award in 2007. He said it was rare that a husband and wife would both receive the award.

“I was really thrilled that Elise won the Piper Award,” he said. “As her students will attest, she is an outstanding teacher.”

Elise Price said she became a teacher because of instructors in high school who influenced her life. She likes to teach different classes every semester, including American history, to keep her mind sharp. She said each semester she welcomes students in her classes who need extra help to visit her during her office hours.

“I have a reputation as a good teacher, a fair teacher, but my classes are not easy,” she said.

As a nominee, Price had to complete a portfolio containing essays by her and letters from colleagues, administrators and students.

Jon Tucker, who took Price’s calculus class in 2008 and is now completing a degree in engineering, said Price gave him the skills necessary to turn his dreams into reality.

Price had a natural ability to communicate complex mathematical concepts and kept the class fun and simple, he said. Tucker liked that Price would go the extra mile to help him, such as answering his questions before or after class, either in her office or with an e-mail.

“Professor Price truly is the proverbial hidden gem, tucked away in the halls of learning, selflessly giving her all to the advancement of education,” he said.

Ashlie Whitted said Price taught her history course in 2008 using three different methods: verbal, visual and hands-on. Whitted liked the personal photographs Price would show the class of historical places she visited. The pictures along with Price’s personal experiences made history enjoyable for Whitted.

“Bringing a subject to life can be a difficult task,” she said, “but Mrs. Price did it so effortlessly and seamlessly that as a student, I could see and appreciate how much effort and care she had put into her lesson plans.”

Both Tucker and Whitted commented on Price’s efforts to make sure no student was left out. They said at the beginning of the semester she made all students write an essay stating their strengths and weaknesses. Then she tailored her classes around them.

Whitted said the professor-student relationship is something important to her, and she felt Price’s knowing her name made her want to do her best in class.

“To Mrs. Price, I wasn’t just the tall girl who sits in the back of the class on the aisle,” she said. “I had a name.”