Riya V. Anandwala | June 2, 2009
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| Photo by Jane Reeves |
| Ralph Winslow Visiting Professor Jim Bright, left, is one of four Student Choice Award winners. Steven Blomeke of the Student Alumni Association presented the award to Bright. |
Bright is one of four Student Choice Award winners this year. Presented by IU’s Student Alumni Association, this honor recognizes faculty based on student voting.
“I am surprised and honored that I am one of the four recipients of this award,” said Bright. “This means a lot to me since this comes from the students. I will always cherish this.”
The other three recipients are Myron Kanning of the Kelley School of Business, Rasul Mowatt of HPER and Phillip Summers of psychology.
SAA graduate assistant Kim Kushner said students may vote for as many professors they want.
“The ballots are all around the campus, the library, cultural center. The students are notified through e-mail, heavy advertisements across campus and SAA Web site during spring break time,” said Kushner
When Bright was notified in April, he was overwhelmed, he said, particularly because this award has been given to other journalism faculty, including professor emeritus G. Cleveland Wilhoit in 1991 and 1998, former professor David Pritchard in 1993, Claude Cookman in 1994 and former professor Paul Voakes in 1999.
Before his appointment three years ago, Bright had an extensive career in public relations, including 24 years at Ford Motor Company. He was also associated with Mazda Motor Corporation in Hiroshima, Japan, in international operations, marketing, sales and service.
At the School of Journalism, Bright has led his J460 International Public Relations class to Japan twice to meet with news and public relations organizations.
One of his recent students, Haley Bakker wrote a recommendation letter for him as a requirement for his nomination. She said getting to know Bright was the best part of the course.
“He is an incredible teacher, man. He puts a 100 percent in his students and his job,” she said.
“Jim offered his help to me. My making contacts, preparing for interviews and resumes, all are because of him. We all owe him,” said Allison Parks, who has landed two internships with PR firms in Paris and Switzerland.
Bakker echoed the sentiment. She said Bright sat down with her in the beginning of the class and asked what she wanted to accomplish by the end of the year. Today, she has two internship offers.
In a nostalgic moment, Bright recalled his own years as a journalism undergrad at IU and said he feels good about returning to his alma mater to teach.
“This school has a tremendous faculty team and super people like Dean Hamm, Associate Dean Bonnie Brownlee, and the wonderful heritage of the campus,” he said. “This award belongs to the school of journalism and not only to me.”
For more details about the award, visit the SAA Web site.
