The 2014 West Virginia Professor of the Year award was presented to Marshall University English professor Kateryna Schray from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education in Washington, D.C.

Schray said her goal at the ceremony was to represent Marshall as much as she could.

“The best part of the trip,” Schray said, “was being in a room full of people who genuinely and deeply care about higher education, such as the other winners and the groups that sponsor this award process. It was so exciting to get to talk about Marshall to all of those people.”

Schray said she took Marshall gear with her to Washington to pass out while she was at the event.

‘“I am very grateful for the COLA office and the press office because I asked them for Marshall stuff to pass out,” Schray said. “I passed out pens and all sorts of Marshall souvenirs to everyone I met. I took a T-shirt to Senator Manchin’s office. I made it a point to advertise Marshall the entire trip and say our name as often as I could. It was really fun.”

Not only did Schray take Marshall gear to the event, but she was also the only award recipient representing her university in the group picture.

“On my way out of town, stressed out of my mind, I stopped by the campus bookstore,” Schray said. “I was so fortunate because the two wonderful people working the front desk went out of their way to help me find something suitable to wear. I ended up getting a black vest that I could wear over my dress shirt. In the photo on the CASE website you can clearly see the kelly green M of Marshall. It is the only college or university that you can see represented in the group, which was exactly my goal. Everybody there was like ‘that is such a brilliant idea,’ but the whole idea was to promote Marshall. I love the fact that Marshall is so obviously represented among the winners on the CASE website.”

As professor of the year, Schray said she didn’t want to miss a class day with her students, but many people helped to make her trip to Washington a possibility.

“I seriously struggled with going because it meant I had to miss my Thursday classes,” Schray said. “This is a time in the semester when your students really need you with papers being due and finals. I agonized about going, but thankfully my students were willing to work around my schedule, managed to get everything done and I was able to go. The reason I was able to go is because of Sherri Smith and the academics affairs office. They took care of all of the travel arrangements for me and made it incredibly easy.”

Schray credits her achievement to Marshall University as a whole, as well as many others.

“I am so grateful that I get this award, but this award represents the work overall done at this university,” Schray said. “I can’t stress how important it is to me that everyone understands that while I am the one fortunate enough to have my name on the award, it really belongs to many people. I am indebted to a supportive administration, an encouraging department, and a loving family, and interwoven within those three important categories are cherished friends, amazing colleagues, loved ones far away, inspirational role models and childhood heroes.”

Aundrea Horsley can be contacted at [email protected].