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University Professor awardees are nominated, interviewed, and selected by undergraduate students annually. The award recognizes professors who have a flair for connecting the subject matter with students in a way that inspires and delights. Awardees often says it’s the most meaningful professional award they receive.

What does it take to get the distinction? To embody a specific realm of knowledge and be able to connect it to today’s discerning (and increasingly distracted) students? Vickers, director at the Office of Instructional Innovation’s Center for Teaching & Learning, can’t put his finger on it, but has seen throughout his career the impact gifted teaching can have.

“Still to this day, I don’t know what that is. There’s indicators, predictors of what will make a good teacher,” he says. “The impact on their students is beyond the content of the course. It’s a way of turning someone on to a major that they didn’t know existed or just to a way of thinking or being in the world.”

In the newest �������� Today Radio podcast episode, “Gifted,” we track down 2019 University Professor awardee Jana Houser, two-time awardee James Petrik, and a few students to uncover what a gifted teacher does before, during, and after class that earns them the respect and attention of students in today’s higher ed market.