Dr. Younsung Kim receives 2018 University Teaching Excellence Award
Our very own Dr. Younsung Kim is one of the recipients of the 2018 University Teaching Excellence Award, which recognizes and acknowledges the significant work that faculty members devote to course planning and preparation, curriculum development, and innovative teaching, advising, and undergraduate and graduate mentoring.
As a former Deputy Director of the Korean Ministry of the Environment, Dr. Kim has taught varied courses in Environmental Policy, Corporate Environmental Management and Policy, and Quantitative Research Methods and Data Analysis. She also coordinates the Developing Countries in Environmental Policymaking course (EVPP 337), which is part of the Mason Core and serves as a writing-intensive requirement for students in Global Affairs. Her professional career at the Carbon Finance Team of the World Bank had uniquely prepared her to teach and to organize the course in a balanced way to include academic principles and practical applications.
In every classroom, she intends to foster the students’ critical thinking skills, which is key to addressing today’s complicated environmental and sustainability challenges. Outside of the classroom, she has also mentored undergraduate students via OSCAR projects and the Global Problems Solving Program. Her advisees went on to present their research projects at internationally renowned conferences such as the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Conference, American Society for Public Administration Conference, and the Midwest Political Science Conference.
One of her students shared, “Dr. Kim has made me feel like I can do anything, and that is one of the hallmarks of effective and transformative teaching.”
In 2016, Dr. Kim also won the “Best Journal Article of 2015” award from the Public and Nonprofit Division of the Academy of Management. Read this post for more details.
She shares one of her teaching tips on a flexible course design approach that can optimize student learning: https://stearnscenter.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/kim_flex_learning.pdf
