Campus Connection

This is sixth in a series of profiles on this year’s Eagle Teaching Excellence Award winners

There is no doubt UWL faculty members make a major difference in the lives and academic experiences of students. This year UWL’s Provost Office received more than 600 nominations from UWL students to recognize excellent teachers.

From these nominations, a committee selected six faculty members as the 2019 Eagle Teaching Excellence Award winners. Their names were announced at the end of spring semester and as part of spring commencement. They will also be recognized among colleagues at the Chancellor’s All-University Address in fall.

The winners are:

Nilakshi Borah ~ Finance
Mary Hamman ~ Economics
Tom Jesse ~ English Education
Terry Smith ~ Communication Studies
Meredith Thomsen ~ Biology
Nathan Warnberg ~ Mathematics & Statistics

This is the sixth in a series of stories profiling the winners.

Nathan Warnberg helps students see their potential in math

Nathan Warnberg, assistant professor of Mathematics and Statistics, likes watching students change from a mindset of 'I don't understand this,' to 'I don't understand this, yet.'

“Basically, I like helping students believe that there is not a math gene (or writing, chemistry, art, biology, etc. gene). Instead, there are people that do a lot of math and people that don't do a lot of math. This, in turn, helps students realize that their potential is typically much higher than they thought it was,” he says. “Watching this realization dawn on students over the course of a semester, or year or college career is a joy. Supporting them through this process with compassion and empathy is even better.”

Warnberg has taught at UWL since fall 2014. He graduated from UW-Platteville in 2008 where he studied math and economics. He then took a year off to work before starting graduate school at Iowa State University. In college he had his first experience teaching and realized it was what he wanted to do. He graduated from Iowa State in Spring 2014.

He typically teaches some general education math courses, along with calculus courses or other upper level math courses. He has also enjoyed teaching first year seminars and a tutor training course for Murphy Learning Center tutors. “The variety of courses that I teach is one of the things I like best about our department,” he says.