Lyle Olson, professor of journalism and mass communication at South Dakota State University, will be honored as Journalism Educator of the Year at an Aug. 6 trade convention in Boston.
The award comes from the Scholastic Journalism Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. The division focuses on education of high school journalists and gives the award to college educators who have remained involved in working with younger journalists.
“The breadth and depth of his teaching experience is amazing — from junior high to senior high, from remedial to upper division and from graduate education to teaching colleagues and media professionals,” said Mary Arnold, head of the SDSU Department of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Although he may teach graduate classes on campus, Olson said he continues to have a “passion for working with younger journalists.”
Among those activities are teaching at the South Dakota High School Press Association’s summer institute for the past 15 years. This year he is teaching on newspaper desktop publishing. Last year he revised booklets used for judging high school newspapers and yearbooks. In addition, he continues to judge South Dakota high school newspapers and yearbooks.
Another unique aspect of Olson’s teaching is teaching a home school, high school journalism class that produces a newspaper and mini-yearbook.
He said his earlier academic work on high school press freedom laws and on people who direct high school press associations has appeared in scholastic journals and is still cited by other researchers.
At the college level, Arnold said, “Professor Olson is by far the most student-centered educator I have ever met, and his students recognize and appreciate his dedication to and keen interest in them. They have nominated him for both the SDSU College of Arts & Sciences and College of Graduate Studies teacher of the year awards.”
One of Olson’s former students, Miranda J. Reiman, Class of 2006, now working for Certified Angus Beef in Cozad, Neb., said Olson was one of the top professors she encountered during her time at SDSU.
“He brings a patient teaching style to the classroom that is appreciated by the diverse students he instructs. He shares his 40-plus years of experience, while letting students discover their own writing voices and techniques. He brings real-world exercises to his curriculum, so students know how to apply what they learn to actual projects.
“As an advisor, Dr. Olson points students toward classes and experiences that will help them achieve their career goals,” Reiman said. “Yet, he is careful to let them make their own decisions and blaze their own paths. His life’s calling is to bring out the potential of people like myself at a time when they are all discovering their callings.”
Arnold said on student opinion surveys, Olson consistently receives outstanding scores on all measures. Most students comment on his exceptional organization, his effective presentations and his excellent knowledge of subject and teaching.
Great teaching has been a career-long goal for Olson, and Arnold said he’s not finished yet. In the past five years, Olson has developed and taught four new classes —one on the Dakota Digital Network, an international journalism class and two of the department’s first Internet-delivered classes.
Olson came to SDSU after eight years as a professor of English and journalism at Oklahoma Wesleyan University, where he was also adviser to its award-winning college newspaper and yearbook. He joined the faculty of South Dakota State in 1989 as associate professor and was promoted to professor in 1995.
He has been the director of the department’s graduate program since that time and oversees the agricultural journalism, which is offered in cooperation with the College of Agriculture and Biological Science.
“I’d like to think they (AEJMC) recognized that I try to exhibit a servant’s attitude with students and colleagues,” said Olson about receiving the award. “That attitude comes from my spiritual underpinnings.”
Founded in 1881, South Dakota State University is the state’s Morrill Act land-grant institution as well as its largest, most comprehensive school of higher education. SDSU confers degrees from eight different colleges representing more than 200 majors, minors and options. The institution also offers 23 master’s degree programs and 12 Ph.D. programs.
January 15, 2010