The 2005 Distinguished Teaching Awards were announced Monday, with the college president and an entourage of people, balloons and smiles surprising this year’s winners.
The winners are Walter Shriner, Lydia Yuknavitch and Ellen White. They will be honored at the graduation ceremony in June.

Shriner, an instructor of biology, was in class when the announcement was made. He said he suspected something was up when his students continued to look behind them at the door to the classroom. “I think a lot of them were involved in the letter writing,” he said.
“I didn’t know how to react I was speechless,” Shiner said. He thought his students seemed pleased with the way things went.

Yuknavitch, a literature and composition instructor, was also teaching a class when the announcement came. She said it was “embarrassing” because she’s “not good at that kind of attention.” She was so moved by the announcement that she gave her entire class 10 extra credit points and let them go early.

One student of Yuknavitch went through a rough emotional period and was so grateful to Yuknavitch that she wrote a moving letter that helped win Yuknavitch the award. “It was incredibly emotional,” she said. “We both cried.” Yuknavitch was surprised by the president, and in fact was not wearing shoes when they arrived.

White, who works in early childhood education, was also taken by surprise. “It was quite astonishing,” she said. White’s office is located near one of the classrooms, which at the time of the announcement, was filled with sleeping children. “Some of them probably woke up early,” said White.

White has been at MHCC for 18 years, and said she has seen her collegues receive the award, but never thought that she would get one this year.