Thuswaldner and Ferguson Sauder Receive Annual Academic Service Awards

Each year the College salutes two part-time faculty members by granting them the Academic Service Award, in honor of distinguished teaching and service to Gordon College.

Pamela Thuswaldner, adjunct professor of German, has a genuine zest for the study of the language that grows out of a love of culture, and she hopes that spirit radiates in her courses. But her contributions to Gordon extend far beyond the classroom. With her husband, Gregor, she has helped develop the Salzburg Institute, which explores history, music, art and culture in Salzburg, Austria, where nearly twenty Gordon students studied last summer. For several years now, she has also been the College’s director for the Fulbright Scholarship program, and has now guided many Gordon students to successfully earning Fulbrights to teach and study abroad after Gordon.

Tim Ferguson Sauder is an adjunct professor of art, with a specialty in graphic design, and the founder of the Return Design Collaborative, which provides students opportunities to do pro-bono graphic design work for real-world clients. He is also an avid skateboarder who is interested in tagging, or graffiti art. As Professor Bruce Herman states, he “has his hand in a lot of edgy ‘worlds’ of art that are not commodified” and is "an idealistic, witty, generous man." Tanja Butler, associate professor of art, calls his teaching "innovative and adventurous," noting that he takes his students to Boston design firms. Last October, in fact, he took a team of students to Virginia for a 48-hour creative consultation "blitz" with Free for Life International, a nonprofit that works with victims of sexual trafficking.

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