Associate Professor Anja Blecking received the 2019-2020 Faculty Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award presented by UWM Chancelor Mark Mone. With this award, the UWM Awards and Recognition Committee expressed their most sincere appreciation of Dr. Blecking’s demonstrated achievements and commitment to teaching UWM undergraduate students.
Prof. Blecking shows a deep passion for student learning in both her undergraduate teaching and her creative scholarship of science education, which is evident in her many outreach projects.
She established the “Science House” at UWM to support high school students and science teachers. In serving as the leader of the science team in the M3 consortium, she has been instrumental in developing programs aimed at increasing the pipeline of Milwaukee Public Schools students to UWM and Milwaukee Area Technical College.
Prof. Blecking has secured several large grants totaling more than $4 million to support science education, including from the National Science Foundation. Her efforts greatly increase the visibility of UWM as a STEM destination campus for incoming undergraduates. Many of these student programs, such as Upward Bound, are aimed at inclusion of underrepresented minorities.
One nominator said: “Dr. Blecking is the strongest connection the Milwaukee Public Schools science department has to UWM at this time. Her dedication to working with our district has made a lasting impact, and increased opportunities for our students.”
For more information about the UWM 2020 Fall Awards see here.