Loyalist Professor John Schneeberger has been selected as a semifinalist in TVOntario’s 2008 Best Lecturer competition. Professor Schneeberger was chosen as one of 38 semifinalists for the show Big Ideas, which will air in March with the ten finalists. This year he was the only Ontario Community College professor chosen as a semifinalist. The nominations were submitted by students and faculty from universities and colleges across the province.
“I’m very proud and surprised to have made it to the list of the top 38 Ontario professors in TVO’s Best Lecturer competition,” said John Schneeberger. “I think teaching is about making the classroom interactive and integral. I try to have fun, so the student is constantly learning whether they realize it or not. That’s my goal. The crew that I work with at Loyalist is phenomenal, the best group I have ever worked with in my life.”
Professor John Schneeberger, or Chef John as he is known to his students, is the coordinator of Loyalist’s one-year Culinary Skills – Chef Training program and the two-year Culinary Management program. Of Swiss descent, he has dual citizenship in Canada and Switzerland and comes from a family with several Executive Chefs and a Master Pastry Chef. Chef Schneeberger is a graduate of George Brown College and has completed both his cook and baker apprenticeships and has travelled throughout Europe and Canada working in numerous restaurants. He was the Executive Chef Instructor at a private college for two years prior to his arrival at Loyalist College 11 years ago. While teaching in the Hotel and Restaurant Management program, Chef John co-developed the Culinary Management – Chef Training program and was instrumental in bringing the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP) to Loyalist.
In the nomination that Chef John’s students and peers submitted to TVOntario they described him as a professor who was able to adapt to his audience, and someone who is entertaining and full of examples and explanations that stay with you long after class and into the world beyond college.
The judges will review video submissions of the professors’ lectures in order to shortlist ten finalists. The judges are former teacher, school principal and politician Zanana Akande; author, poet and award-winning journalist Barry Callaghan; and, actor, writer, producer Tony Nardi. They will look for lecturers who engage their listeners with passion, flair and clarity, conveying their knowledge with genuine conviction.
The ten finalists will deliver complete lectures on Big Ideas over five weeks beginning March 1, 2008. Viewers will then have the opportunity to vote for their favourite lecturer in order to decide the winner. The winner’s institution will receive a $10,000 TD Meloche Monnex scholarship for its student awards program.
Media Contact: Marilyn Warren, Communications, Loyalist College, (613) 969-1913, ext. 2332, e-mail: mwarren@loyalistc.on.ca or George Burton, Vice-President Enrolment Management and Student Services, ext. 2355.