SWT Geographer Receives Teaching Honor

SAN MARCOS, TEXAS — Frederick A. Day, professor of geography at Southwest Texas State University, has recently been honored as an outstanding university teacher in geography.

The National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE), the foremost professional association dedicated to the teaching of geography, presented Day with the NCGE Distinguished Teaching Achievement Award at its 86th annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada, this August.

Day has been a popular undergraduate and graduate teacher in SWT’s geography program since 1988. His world regional geography course has introduced more than 3,000 students to geography. He has also developed and has since taught courses on population geography, his area of expertise.

A speaker of French, Korean and Thai, Day’s more than six years of overseas experience have enriched his regional courses on Asia. In 1998 he was honored as SWT’s International Programs Professor of the Year.

In 2000, SWT geography students awarded Day the Graduate Mentoring Award.

“Teaching truly is my first priority at the university,” Day said. “I put a good deal of my time into preparing insightful and interesting lectures that relate to our students’ lives. I think they appreciate that.”

Having published in several international research journals, Day has also been actively sought out as a research advisor and committee member in SWT’s newly established Ph.D. programs in geography.

Fred Day, professor of Geography at SWT