Professor of hope wins a HOPE

Rick Snyder, after winning award, with Barbara Ballard, associate vice provost for student success

Clearly the power of hope is working for Professor Rick Snyder.

KU's resident expert on the psychological power of hope is this year's HOPE (Honor for an Outstanding Progressive Educator) Award winner. HOPE has sprung twice for Snyder, who first won the award in 1991. It is the only KU honor for teaching excellence bestowed exclusively by students.

Since 1991, Snyder, the M. Erik Wright distinguished professor of clinical psychology, has written six books on the theory of hope and numerous articles describing hope's impact on various aspects of life, including health, children, spirituality and work.

"You give and receive when you have the honor of teaching," Snyder says. "You give hope to students and, in turn, they give hope to teachers. Hope is a way of thinking about goals and how we can reach those goals. I don't think our species would have survived without hope."

Snyder, who teaches courses on individual psychological differences and clinical psychology, has received several other teaching honors since joining the KU faculty in 1972. These include: the 1992 Byrd Outstanding Graduate Educator Award, a 1997 Kemper Award, the 2000 Outstanding Graduate Educator from the American Psychological Association, the 2001 Council for Advancement and Support of Education Professor of the Year, the 2001 Byron T. Shutz Award for Distinguished Teaching and the 2002 Outstanding Psychology Teacher in Kansas from the Kansas Psychological Association.

Snyder received the HOPE at the Nov. 22 KU-Iowa State football game during a halftime ceremony. The KU Class of 1959 established the award to recognize the recipient's outstanding teaching and concern for students.

Learn more about KU's professor of hope at
http://www.psych.ku.edu/faculty/rsnyder/Default.htm.

The finalists for the HOPE Award this year were Cynthia G. Akagi, assistant professor of health, sport and exercise sciences; Robert G. Carlson, professor of chemistry; Chico Herbison, instructor in African and African-American studies; Stephen Ilardi, associate professor of psychology; Jeffrey Lang, professor of mathematics; and Tom Volek, associate professor of journalism.

For more information about these outstanding educators, please visit http://www.ur.ku.edu/News/03N/NovNews/Nov18/hope.html.