What makes someone a distinguished teacher?

At Kent State University at Stark, the Distinguished Teaching Award is given to the teacher who has comprehensive knowledge of their fields, effectively and resourcefully organizes and presents material, and stimulates student thinking and understanding.

SOAR LLI instructor Thomas Sosnowski received the Stark Distinguished Teaching Award in 1978 and 1985. He taught history at Kent State University at Stark for 41 years, retiring in 2017. As someone who received this award twice, his zest for teaching shines through when he talks about his teaching career.

“I like to teach. Teaching has been my life,” said Sosnowski, currently Professor Emeritus of History. “I’ve been involved with teaching for 50 years – all my life. It is in my blood.

“I really enjoy students enjoying the world: Learning other cultures, other languages, other ways of doing things, other ways of thinking.”

SOAR members will enjoy learning from Sosnowski in his class “Kent State (1970) and Other Student Protests: Memories and Legacies” on October 16, in person only at Harrison Hall at The Hawk Farmington Hills Community Center. Sosnowski will talk about the protests at Kent State University (KSU) and the recent protests on college campuses. Click here to register.

Sosnowski was a student at KSU in 1970 and received his M.A. and Ph.D in History from KSU. His academic specialty is French history with a sub-specialty in Ohio history.

Sosnowski received his B.A. in History from the University of Detroit (named the University of Detroit Mercy in 1990). He was born and raised in Detroit and currently lives in North Canton, Ohio.

When the distinguished teacher is not teaching, Sosnowski is often spending time with his family, travelling, or reading.

“I love to read,” said Sosnowski. “Most of the reading I do is professional reading.  “I read The Pioneers by David McCullough. It is about the early European settlers of Southern Ohio, about the founders of Marietta, Ohio from 1788 to 1790s.” Another book Sosnowski read recently is The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams (2022) by Stacy Schiff.

Some of the countries Sosnowski has travelled to, with his wife Terry Ford Sosnowski, are Germany, France, and Poland. Click here and scroll down to page 3 to read an article about Sosnowski and Terry living in Poland and teaching at the University of Warsaw from 1983 to 1984.

“I love to travel,” said Sosnowski. “We’ve travelled to Europe a number of times. We lived in Poland for a year. I’ve been to Paris at least 12 times. I have a brother-in-law that lives in Provence. Two of my exchange daughters are from Germany so we’ve been there. We go to Canada for the Stratford Festival once a year.

“Next year I’m planning to go to France because it is my 80th birthday and I want to go there as my celebration.”

Sosnowski and Terry have been married for 44 years, and have two daughters, and two grandchildren. Terry is a poet and Professor Emeritus of English at KSU Stark. They have a daughter Ardith who lives in Grand Rapids, and a daughter Alexa who lives in Florida. Sosnowski explained how his daughter’s name Alexa came about, since the Amazon Alexa was not around when his daughter was born.

“My wife wanted a name that was special but not usual,” said Sosnowski. “We went through all kinds of names. We came up with a very long list. Neither of us liked what the other liked. Then I said I had a student named Alexa, and my wife said, ‘I like that name’. Alexa was a student of mine from 1968 to 1971, and I still hear from her sometimes.”

If you attend Sosnowski’s class “Kent State (1970) and Other Student Protests: Memories and Legacies” you will be learning from a distinguished teacher who cares whether or not the students in his class are interested in the subject.

“Everyone is not interested in what I have to say, so my job is to make it interesting,” Sosnowski said. “I hope at times I am able to have the enthusiasm to make it interesting. To take cardboard figures and make them real.” Based on feedback from SOAR members, Sosnowski excels in his role and is very deserving of the Distinguished Teaching Awards that he has received.

Sosnowski’s fall term class is part of SOAR’s Bring a Friend for Free Day. Use the link below to register your friends.