MCC Announces Excellence in Service and Teaching Awards
Philip C Jones, left, and Brian Cleary
Manchester Community College bestowed its annual Excellence in Service and Excellence in Teaching Awards to two members of the college community.
Brian Cleary, of Andover, was awarded the Excellence in Service Award. Excellence in Teaching went to Philip C Jones, of East Hartford. These MCC awards annually recognize and honor employees who demonstrate excellence as judged by their peers. All employees of the college are eligible for one award or the other. Nominations are submitted during the fall term and may come from students, colleagues, supervisors, alumni or other community members.
The awards are presented to recipients each year by MCC President Gena Glickman, Ph.D., as part of the spring semester Opening Day Ceremonies.
Cleary was cited for fostering student success and for his ability to motivate and support students in the pursuit of their academic goals. He has served as director of the Academic Support Center at MCC since 2009. He currently teaches philosophy as an adjunct instructor, and he is a member of the first class of MCC’s new Leadership Academy. He was formerly a counselor for MCC in 2008. In the decade prior to moving to Connecticut, he worked for the Community College of Vermont, Lyndon State College, and the University of Vermont in various roles, including coordinator of academic services, community support specialist, and adjunct faculty member. Cleary holds a master of arts degree in philosophy from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y.
Jones earned the Excellence in Teaching Award for inspiring and challenging students every day to be their best. He is professor of biology and course coordinator for the anatomy and physiology department at MCC. He graduated from Thames Polytechnic and Barnes College in London and taught at Charles Keene College in Leicester. He was awarded a Fulbright exchange position in 1989 and traveled to the United States for one year to teach at East Hartford High School, where he met his future wife Edie, an elementary school teacher in the same district. He returned to the U.K. for a while, but then worked as an adjunct professor at MCC and a substitute high school teacher at East Hartford and, in 1994, joined MCC’s biology faculty full time as an instructor.
About MCC
Students of any age who possess the desire to pursue higher education are welcome at Manchester Community College. MCC is proud of its academic excellence, new facilities, flexible schedules, small classes, low tuition and faculty with both academic and “real world” credentials. The college offers over 60 programs, transfer options, financial aid and scholarships, as well as access to baccalaureate degrees through guaranteed admissions programs with several universities. The main, park-like campus, which is easily accessible from I-84, is also the home of Great Path Academy, a middle college high school, serving grades 9-12. The college’s second location, the Manchester Community College Arts and Education Center, opened in downtown Manchester in 2012. In January 2014, MCC was named as one of the nation’s top 150 community colleges, eligible to compete for the 2015 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence and $1 million dollars in prize funds by the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program.
