The Minneapolis Star Tribune recently published an article about the life and career of Phil Adamo, professor of history at Augsburg College and 2015 .

The article focuses on Adamo’s engaging approach to teaching history and his personal history with academia. As a young man, he decided to forgo a college education in favor of a career as a clown with the Ringling Bros. Circus. Eventually, the constant demands of performance wore him down. “I was exhausted by performing so much, and I started to think that I wasn’t funny,” he said. “That’s a bad thing for a clown.”

Returning from the circus, he enrolled as a medieval studies major at Ohio State University, where a senior project involving a summer in a monastery led to an award-winning dissertation and propelled him toward a career in academia.

The article also depicts Adamo as an ardent supporter of having a liberal arts education, which he says “gives the benefit of having a better life, a more interesting life, a better understanding of who you are as a human.”

Read Augsburg professor left circus to bring history to life on the Star Tribune site.

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Read: on the Pioneer Press site.

The post Pioneer Press notes Phillip Adamo’s Professor of the Year award appeared first on News and Media.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.)— Augsburg College’s Phillip C. Adamo, associate professor of history and director of the College Honors Program, was named the 2015 Minnesota Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

Adamo, who was selected from more than 300 top professors in the United States, was recognized November 19 in a proclamation by Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges who declared it “Dr. Phillip C. Adamo Day in the City of Minneapolis.”

“Phil expands the imaginative possibilities for students through the design of innovative and powerful learning experiences that foster critical thinking, advanced cognitive abilities, and habits of deep reflection,” said Karen Kaivola, Augsburg College Provost and Chief Academic Officer.

“He has answered his call to inspire, mentor, and educate students, providing serious challenges for the most advanced learners while guiding all students with compassion. Phil exemplifies and embodies Augsburg College’s mission to be a new kind of student-centered urban university, small to our students and big for the world.”

A national and statewide recipient of numerous awards and honors — in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and history — Adamo joined Augsburg’s History Department in 2001. Since that time, he has been awarded Augsburg’s Award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching and Learning, the Distinguished Contributions to Scholarship award, and the CARA Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Medieval Academy of America. While in graduate school at The Ohio State University, Adamo received the Graduate Associate Teaching Award, the Provost’s Teaching Fellowship, and the Clio Award for Outstanding Teaching in History.

Adamo is the second Augsburg College faculty member to be honored by Carnegie/CASE. In 2004, Professor Emeritus Garry Hesser earned the prestigious award.

CASE and the Carnegie Foundation have been partners in offering the U.S. Professors of the Year awards program since 1981. This year, a state Professor of the Year was recognized in 35 states. Adamo was among those, and was selected from faculty members nominated by colleges and universities throughout the country.

About Augsburg College: Augsburg College offers more than 50 undergraduate majors and nine graduate degrees to nearly 3,600 students of diverse backgrounds at its campuses located in the vibrant center of the Twin Cities and in Rochester. Augsburg College educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. The Augsburg experience is supported by an engaged community committed to intentional diversity in its life and work. An Augsburg education is defined by excellence in the liberal arts and professional studies, guided by the faith and values of the Lutheran church, and shaped by its urban and global settings.

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