LSC-Fairbanks Center adjunct psychology faculty Wendy Parslow-Helton was rated 8th in the nation on mtvU’s RateMyProfessors.com Top 25 Junior and Community Colleges list.
“It is very cool to receive this honor,” said Parslow-Helton. “RateMyProfessors.com is a nationally-known web site, and most college students around the country are familiar with it.”
RateMyProfessors.com is the highest trafficked free site for quickly researching and rating more than 1.8 million professors from colleges and universities across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Students rate professors on several dimensions: clarity, helpfulness, easiness and rater interest (interest level prior to attending the class with a professor's Overall Quality rating being determined by equal weighting clarity and helpfulness.
“As a teacher, it is always rewarding to get positive feedback from students,” said Parslow –Helton. “I really strive to create a welcoming classroom environment for students, even in my online classes. I try to be approachable and treat each student with respect. With psychology, so much of the content is relevant to their everyday lives, so that makes it easy to engage them.”
While Parslow –Helton currently teaches Lone Star College students online because she now lives in Colorado, she was a full-time LSC-Fairbanks Center professor from 2006 to 2012. Prior to moving to Texas in 2004, she had practiced clinical psychology as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Arizona and California, but had been an adjunct psychology instructor, dating all the way back to 1993.
“I think that my clinical background really adds to my teaching. It’s great to be able to bring those real-world examples into the classroom,” she said. “I have always had a passion for teaching in the community college setting. I love the diversity and it is so rewarding to see students gain the confidence to pursue their academic and career goals.”
Her positive experience at LSC-Fairbanks Center made it very difficult to consider leaving as she and her husband, both outdoors people with hopes to live in the mountains again, were both hired for full-time teaching positions for Community College of Denver and Metropolitan State University, respectively.
“We knew it would be a long shot for both of us to be hired, but we couldn’t pass up the opportunity,” she said. “I still teach an online course for the LSC-Fairbanks Center, so I still have that connection to LSCS. I feel incredibly lucky to have had two great full-time teaching positions with two great colleges.”
For information on LSC-Fairbanks Center, go to LoneStar.edu.