Dr. Andrew Yox, Northeast Texas Community College's Honors Director, recently reached a climactic moment of his †twenty-year career in Northeast Texas.
On March 4 in Irving, The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) awarded Yox the Mary Jon and J.P. Bryan Leadership in Education Award, a citation that came with a $5,000 prize.† It is the top financial award granted each year by the TSHA, open to university and college educators in history throughout the state.
Author, Dr. Paula Marks, a Vice President of TSHA, chaired the committee that determined the award.† Marks noted that there were several fine candidates, but that Yox?s file ?exhibited an across-the-board excellence that kept his candidacy at the top.?† Another member of the committee,† Dr. Gene Preuss of the University of Houston, noted that the committee wavered between some top university candidates and Yox, but in the end, Yox?s profile as the founding director of a stellar honors program, and the work of his students in various Texas history projects made the difference.
NTCC professors Windell Doddy, Dr. Chuck Hamilton, and Dr. Mary Hearron submitted the needed letters for Yox?s file that the committee assessed. Dr. Hearron, an honors professor, and colleague of Yox in NTCC?s Biotex Seminar since 2007, wrote: that ?our seminar students have won over twenty national awards since 2010.† We are the only community college honors program in the nation to have had students present continuously at the National Collegiate Honors Council since 2008. . . so it has been a delight to have our . . . students presenting at this level.?
Yox received the award directly from the long-term patron of the leadership in education prize, and of the TSHA, Mr. J. P. Bryan.† In remarks at the TSHA Award Luncheon in Irving, Bryan noted that several teachers made the difference in his life, and that was why he underwrites the award each year.† Bryan said that he believes Yox?s students have won top national awards year after year, and that the evidence shows that NTCC under Yox?s leadership has supported one of the top honors programs in the nation.† Bryan is a descendant of Stephen F. Austin, a CEO and board member of several Houston energy companies, and the founder of the Bryan Museum of Galveston, that features Southwest history and art.
?God has blessed me with a wonderful family, funding, and some talents?I was perhaps bound to pull off something. Certainly, though, the incredible synergy that has emerged in honors here--between our faculty members, our Friends of Honors, our talented students, and administrators--meshed well with the generous award Mr. Bryan has supported,? Yox said.
