Three Cape Fear Community College employees were recently honored with awards to recognize teaching excellence and outstanding performance.
 
Sociology instructor Bethaney Ferguson received the Marilyn Goodman Anderson Endowed Award for Excellence in Teaching. This award, according to a news release from the college, is given annually to a faculty member who has a positive impact on students, demonstrates mastery of his or her subject and an outstanding teaching philosophy. Ferguson will receive a $2,000 stipend to further advance her classroom.
 
Ferguson’s personal goal, the release stated, is to help students become “critical, creative, innovative thinkers with the ability to connect facts to abstractions while simultaneously conducting themselves as autonomous, self-disciplined individuals capable of strategically working in teams.”
 
Rebecca Miller and Mark VanCura received this year’s President’s Awards, which “seek to recognize outstanding efforts and contributions to CFCC, students and the community,” according to the release, which stated that recipients “embody CFCC’s “key principles of dedication, involvement, professionalism and leadership.”
 
Miller was recognized for her outstanding contributions to CFCC’s Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) program. Handling administrative needs for the program, Miller developed new procedures to streamline paperwork processes for the office that, according to the release, ensure accuracy and time efficiency. Miller’s program proved so effective that BLET programs across the state adopted it to enhance their departments. 
 
VanCura, a biology instructor, was honored for his “exceptional, engaging teaching styles that motivate students to enjoy learning material and to persevere to their full potential,” the release stated. Former students nominated VanCura, boasting that they still remember individual bones and muscles of the body. They credit this knowledge to VanCura, who “has helped and motivated his students with an outstanding education and motivation that is necessary to achieve career goals," the release stated.
 
The awards were presented by CFCC president Amanda Lee on Aug. 19 at the college's annual in-service program. Both the Marilyn Goodman Anderson Endowed Award for Excellence in Teaching and the President’s awards are presented annually. Recipients are nominated by students and fellow employees.