Ivy Tech Instructor Recognized for Excellence in Teaching

May 4, 2005      

BLOOMINGTON, IN – The Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington’s recipient of the 2005 President’s Award for Excellence in Instruction is Janice E. Malinovsky, an adjunct instructor who teaches mathematics in the College’s Academic Skills Advancement program. This is the third time that Malinovsky has been nominated for this prestigious award. Malinovsky will be honored at Ivy Tech’s annual Honors Day luncheon on Friday, May 13. Ivy Tech students receiving academic honors will also be recognized at this ceremony.

The President’s Award for Excellence in Instruction is presented annually to a faculty member from each of Ivy Tech’s 14 regions and is an effort to recognize faculty who typify excellence in instruction and in representing the mission of the College. This accolade automatically makes Malinovsky a nominee for the Glenn W. Sample Award for Excellence in Instruction, the highest honor the College awards a faculty member who epitomizes excellence in instruction.

Says Ivy Tech Chancellor John Whikehart: “Jan Malinovsky is best known as being a “people person.” She is passionate about her students’ success and her subject matter. She teaches with compassion and humor, getting to know her students and encouraging them to communicate in and outside of the classroom. She also has a wonderful rapport with other faculty, administrators, and staff.”

Malinovsky grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. Destined to be a math teacher, her first grade teacher reported that she would quickly finish her own math and then insist on helping everyone else with theirs. In 1971, she graduated from Indiana University with a B.S. in Education, and in 1992, she obtained her Master’s degree in Education, with an emphasis on Psychological Counseling.

Her first six years of teaching math were at the secondary level where she was the full-time mathematics teacher at Brown County High School in Nashville, IN. Accompanying her husband to universities where he taught optometry, she quickly found her niche in adult education. She has taught at Columbus State University in Columbus, OH, and Ferris State University in Big Rapids, MI. Malinovsky has provided instruction at Ivy Tech-Bloomington for seventeen years, teaching well over 5,000 students.

Comments Malinovsky: “I enjoy the wide range of ages and the diverse backgrounds of my students. Having a student right out of high school sitting beside someone who has been laid off after thirty years at GE keeps me challenged!” Beyond teaching classes at Ivy Tech, Malinovsky is active in the Bloomington community.