NIU retiree Cynthia Stecher, past coordinator of teacher certification for the Department of Mathematical Sciences at NIU, has been awarded the first-ever “Fred Flener Award: Engaging Students in Math Beyond the Classroom” by the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Presented during the group’s 60th annual conference, held earlier this month in Peoria, the award honors Stecher’s leadership in creating and improving opportunities for students to explore mathematics outside of the classroom.
Stecher has had an enormous impact on mathematics education at the national, state and university levels. Since 1994, she has guided, nurtured and mentored 297 undergraduates to becoming secondary mathematics teachers at NIU, one of the three largest programs in the country for secondary mathematics education.
Her university responsibilities included teaching the department’s clinical experience courses, the secondary mathematics methods course and the student teaching seminars each semester.
She coordinated the student teaching with the classroom teacher, the university student and the university supervisor. For each senior, she coordinated, evaluated and certified the student’s fulfillment of the mathematics department requirements, university graduation requirements and state certification requirements.
Stecher, who retired this spring, was honored in 2005 by the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center for outstanding teaching.