King’s Passion for Teaching Earns Him Downing Award

WINTERVILLE�During the school�s annual employee appreciation event this spring, Pitt Community College administrators named instructor Don King the 2009 recipient of the Joseph E. Downing Award for Excellence in Teaching.

King, a LaGrange native, teaches orientation classes for college freshmen and another for students getting started in health curricula at PCC. He said he felt honored and humbled simply being nominated for the Downing Award, adding that he was �surprised� to win it.

�I can�t really say why I won, but I can say confidently that I am very knowledgeable in the areas I teach and am very passionate about my role as an instructor at PCC,� King said. �I see myself not just as a student�s instructor but as a facilitator in one�s personal and academic development.�

An East Carolina University graduate with master�s degrees in Adult Education and Counselor Education, King began working at Pitt in 2000 as an admissions counselor. He moved into his teaching role at the school in August 2004, saying he wanted to push himself personally and professionally.

�Teaching, for me, was an opportunity to be a part of a student�s path toward academic success and offer them the same hope that was given me years before, when I was a student at (Wayne) Community College,� King said. �I truly enjoy what I do and feel so blessed to be a positive part of so many students� lives.�

In addition to his work in the classroom, King has also organized a pair of talent show fundraisers in recent years to provide PCC students with a venue of artistic expression.

�Whether that expression was verbal�through singing or poetic recitation�dancing, comedy, instrument � didn�t matter,� King said. �What mattered was that the individual was given an opportunity to go beyond a comfort zone and stand on a stage in front of their family, friends and peers and perform.�

PCC�s most recent talent show took place in April and raised money for an endowed scholarship established at PCC in memory of nursing student Karen Perry, who died in a car crash Feb. 20, 2008.

�I felt very honored and proud to be a part of an event where all proceeds went to a scholarship in her name that would benefit so many future nursing students here at PCC,� King said.

Don and his wife, Michelle, live in Ayden and are the parents of a son, Matthew.

06/12/2009