Lone Star College-CyFair is honoring Missy Dixon and Dr. Yiheng Wang as this year’s Faculty Excellence Award winners recognizing their passion to teach lessons that will impact students throughout their lives.
Dixon joined LSC-CyFair in 2015 where, as a librarian, she teaches future LSC students. She found her niche is working with babies, preschoolers and early elementary children connecting with this younger audience through story times, book clubs, book chats, book selection and more. She makes it her goal to remember her children when they return weekly or monthly “to guide them, listen to them and be more than just a face at the library.”
“I love instilling the joy of books and learning in children from birth throughout their adolescence,” said Dixon, who as a child was a reluctant reader and had a comprehension disability. “When I teach story time, I know that if I am having fun and enjoying myself, that the kids will enjoy being there, too. Remembering my own challenges, I try to create a love for reading and love for the library with the children.”
Engineering has always been Dr. Wang’s field of interest, but through teaching, she finds fulfillment in knowing she makes an impact on her students. At LSC-CyFair since 2014, she helps her students transform from “memorizing or following formulas” to “understanding, applying, analyzing and creating” and practicing teamwork and communication, all of which are important for real-world engineering work.
“I enjoy teaching engineering also because the essence of engineering is ‘problem solving’,” said Dr. Wang, who also advises and recruits students for NASA-funded opportunities. (Several student engineering teams have won top design awards in NASA-related challenges, with one team’s tool design developed and used during a 2019 spacewalk at the International Space Station.) “Identifying the goals, analyzing the obstacles, and actively seeking creative solutions, this is an attitude that guides my work and life, and it’s an attitude that I sure hope my students can adopt.”
These two faculty winners will be recognized again at the system-wide awards ceremony later this month.
Late Start spring semester classes at LSC-CyFair are available. For information go to LoneStar.edu/late-start