Professor receives teaching award

Ginger Carter Miller’s exceptional classroom instruction and community involvement has been recognized and awarded by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

The associate professor of mass communication earned one of three teaching awards given by the organization’s public relations division after being nominated as an outstanding instructor by Judith Keim, executive director of the Oconee Prevention Resource Council.

“I had no expectations of winning the award at all,” Miller said. “Judith was under no obligation, but wrote one of the most kind and generous letters for nomination that I have ever seen.”

According to Keim, it comes as no surprise that Miller won the honorable teaching accolade.
“Dr. Miller’s priorities have enabled her students to work as interns and practicum students at dozens of local businesses and agencies,” Keim said in a recent press release. “It is not unusual for us to hear that our stories and events have been ‘super-sized’ as a result of the knowledge and enthusiasm Dr. Miller’s students have brought to such a varied number of projects.”

Miller’s accomplishments in teaching have brought much attention to her department, which applauds the professor for her award.

“Excellent teaching is a top priority in the Department of Mass Communication,” said Mary Jean Land, Department of Mass Communication chair and professor. “I was very pleased to hear that Dr. Miller won this award.”

The award, a plaque of humble size that sits inconspicuously in Miller’s office, represents the many years of classroom instruction and real-world experience that Miller has provided to her students since her arrival in 1996.

“I was in complete surprise when I won the award. There was a large group of superior teachers who were nominated for this award, and I know I’m not the only public relations professor who does what I do,” Miller said. “However, we have seen measurable results in public relations at Georgia College. My students have