For years, she told students she was ineligible; this year, they didn’t ask
After 19 years as an instructor in General Studies, Cyndi Starzyk-Frey has won her first Lethbridge College Faculty Association/Students’ Association Teaching Excellence award. It was not for a lack of her students trying to nominate her.
Starzyk-Frey laughs as she recalls how students would ask her permission to nominate her, and each time, she told them she was ineligible as an hourly instructor.
She only learned about her eligibility this year after students nominated her without her knowledge.
Her teaching has been acknowledged in other ways. In 2014, she received a YWCA Women of Distinction award for Education and Mentorship for her work at Lethbridge College. In 2008, she was named Prairie Baseball Academy’s Professor of the Year.
In her nomination for the award, students and colleagues expressed appreciation for her “generosity, warmth, knowledge and commitment” to students.
“They appreciate your teaching style which is full of active, engaged learning as well as your caring spirit.”
In addition to teaching, Starzyk-Frey maintains a thriving private counselling practice, specializing in helping children who’ve experienced trauma and in collaborative divorce, which aims to make the process less adversarial.
Drawing from her professional experiences, Starzyk-Frey is able to humanize the theory she covers in her psychology and sociology courses.
She calls her dual careers “a good harmonious fit.” Through counselling, she’s able to directly help individuals who need it. Through teaching, “I hope I’ve played a hand in helping future social workers, psychologists and child and youth care workers.”
She’s known for creating a safe environment, in which students feel free to talk.
“It’s always amazing how brave they are,” she says. “I can start a lecture, but as students get to know each other more and more, there’s more give and take to the discussion. We’ll often go into other discussions we would not have had otherwise.”
These discussions keep the content fresh, she says, as does her attention to pop culture. She carefully follows television, music and celebrity news looking for ways to make content more relatable to students.
This isn’t the career she set out for, initially studying political science and international politics at the University of Calgary. She considered broadcasting and was accepted to Mount Royal’s program but she got married and started working instead. The job was as an academic adviser at the University of Lethbridge. She thought she’d be in the city for a couple of years.
Working at the U of L gave her a chance to guest lecture, and a love of teaching was born. While still working full-time as an adviser, she earned a master’s of education in guidance and counselling, and soon she found her groove teaching and counselling.
She is also passionate about volunteer work, serving on the U of L Senate, and the boards of New West Theatre and the Lethbridge division of the Alberta Play Therapy Association.
Joining Starzyk-Frey in winning Teaching Excellence awards this year were Cherie Reitzel (Interior Design Technology) and Shane Roersma (Environmental Science). General Studies instructor Florian Linder received the Rookie of the Year award. All four were recognized at the Honouring Excellence event April 26.