Gilbert Community Excellence Awards

2009 Gilbert Community Excellence Awards

An Evening of Celebration

Bassam Matar, CGCC Educator of the Year

Students can clearly detect Bassam Matar’s enthusiasm and love for teaching engineering. He has coordinated and developed the Engineering Program at Chandler-Gilbert Community College since its inception and has grown the program at an amazing rate. His passion for teaching and learning rubs off on the students. Students are assigned real-world hands-on activities in class—build a robot, build an egg-drop device, build a catapult, design a solar home, design a solar oven—which are both challenging and fun. During the annual “Be an Engineer” event, students get an opportunity to meet and ask questions of engineers working in the field, providing powerful information and motivation to stay on their engineering career path.

Bassam understands the individual needs of students, encouraging and contributing to their success and fostering their self-esteem. He structures his classroom so each student is encouraged and recognized as unique. Students get to contribute as “classroom experts” in areas such as programming, designing, building, presenting, and/or writing reports depending on their level of expertise in the area.

Bassam’s outstanding leadership is evident in the quality and number of grants he has been awarded. This past academic year he received a National Science Foundation Grant for more than $500,000 to award as scholarships to CGCC students studying math, science or engineering. In addition, he is a highly respected leader among his engineering peers in the Maricopa Community College District, at ASU, and in the business community. He works closely with engineering representatives from local companies such as Intel, Motorola, Freescale, Avnet, Honeywell, and SRP. Bassam counsels and leads teams of students to the Avnet Games where they have won in both the Robot Competition and Digital Design Competition.

Bassam has developed a set of advisement sheets that outlines exactly what classes an engineering student should take in order to successfully transfer to a university. Every semester, Bassam advises students individually, helping them plan a class schedule. He has mentored and employed several engineering students as student assistants for the Engineering Program, who sing his praises as a devoted mentor, advisor, teacher, and friend.

John Schroeder, CGCC Employee of the Year

John Schroeder is the Provost of the Williams Campus at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. John demonstrates exemplary performance by the level of attention he gives to every project working tirelessly to find out-of-the-box solutions that provide win-win resolutions. John has put in many hours outside of his normal duties to assure the building projects at the Williams Campus are completed properly, economically, and sustainably. John not only looks for ways to be cost effective when using college resources but also encourages the Williams Campus to recycle, reuse, and repair existing resources in an effort to promote sustainability. John recently devoted himself to making sure future students had a building that supported their learning needs by spending countless hours researching vendors and finding quality suppliers; something that would have went unchecked until it was too late had he not stepped into this role.

John leads by example. He sets the bar high in his expectations and then works hard to help employees be successful in rising above the bar. He never asks an employee to do something that he himself is not willing to do or that the employee does not have the tools to complete. He encourages learning at all levels and supports employees needs while finding a balance in what is best for the college and what is best for the employee.

John has built may valuable relationships in the Town of Queen Creek and Mesa, while maintaining working relationships with ASU, Williams Gateway Airport Authority, and Mesa Community College to name a few. Students know him because of his willingness to participate in community activities. He has been instrumental in assisting with scholarships for our students.

John truly follows an open door policy with his staff, and values every student and employee on campus. The college, its employees, and its students have all received benefits beyond measure due to the dedication, loyalty, and service that he brings to work with him every day.

The Arizona Republic/ - October 23, 2009 *- Gilbert Announces Community Excellence Winners*

The Arizona Republic/ - October 23, 2009 - Gilbert Announces Community Excellence Winners**