A member of the marketing faculty at the West Virginia University College of Business and Economics has been recognized with the 2018 Award for Excellence in Service-Learning Instruction.

Dr. Li Wang , a teaching assistant professor of marketing at B&E, was recognized by WVU on April 19 with the award, one of the Excellence in Civic Engagement Awards presented by the university. Service-learning courses are a priority at WVU because they encompass experiential learning while creating a meaningful impact on the community.

Thanks to her efforts, 60 students logged 498.5 hours of community service during the Fall 2017 semester. Participation from Wang’s classes was 100%, as all 51 of the Honors students she teaches participated in service-learning, a critical component of business education in which she firmly believes.

“Each student provided more than eight hours of service to community partners,” Wang said, “and learned a great deal of how non-profit organizations function and how business concepts can be applied in the real world.  

“Service-learning encourages students to think about their contributions to West Virginia. Our status as a land-grant institution is important, and that helps define how students can give back.”

During the past four years, Wang has designed and integrated a service-learning project into the curriculum of the Intro to Business classes she teaches to Honors students. She said the project offers students high-impact learning opportunities while serving community partners on various needs.

“Dr. Wang has worked very hard and has a great track record in guiding and supporting Honors students on the service learning project for Introduction to Business courses,” said Dr. Michael Walsh, B&E marketing chair. “Her efforts are critical to business students just entering our business school, introducing them to the major business disciplines, basic business communications and the University environment. She is quite successful in providing a very intuitive, smooth transition into the business-community mindset for these students.”

Javier Reyes, B&E Milan Puskar Dean, said Wang is teaching integral service-learning, and is doing so through each of values established by WVU and B&E — service, curiosity, respect, accountability and appreciation.  

“Dr. Wang demonstrates a deep commitment to high impact teaching through service-learning, instills the value of relationships with the community and inspires students to make a positive community impact,” Reyes said. “That part of our collegiate experience not only makes for better students, but also makes for better people.”