John “Jack” Swab, a former teaching assistant (TA) in the Department of Geography in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, is one of nine winners who received a 2024-25 Outstanding Teaching Award this past spring.
The awards identify and recognize individuals who demonstrate special dedication to student achievement and who are successful in their teaching. Recipients were selected via nomination and reviewed by a selection committee based in the UK Provost’s Office for Faculty Advancement and the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching. Swab is one of three Category 3 winners, which honors UK teaching assistants.
“I’m incredibly grateful to have been recognized with a 2024 Outstanding Teaching Award,” Swab said. “One of the highlights of my graduate school experience has been working with and helping the diverse students that attend UK grow into individuals with a sense of purpose about their lives. I often think about the teachers that inspired me as a student: to be able to pay that back — and be recognized for it — is very meaningful.”
After graduating with dual bachelor’s degrees from Penn State in 2017, Swab came to UK to pursue master’s degrees in geography (2020) and library science (2022) and ultimately his doctoral degree in 2024.
During these past six years at UK, Swab has taught several courses in the geography department, making “an outstanding contribution to undergraduate education at UK” according to Matt Wilson, professor and chair of the department, who nominated Swab for the award.
In addition to being TA for recitation sections, Swab has been the primary instructor for five introductory geography courses and one core course.
“The decision to make a Ph.D. student a sole instructor is not something we do lightly, but the department had great confidence in his professionalism and teaching ability,” Wilson said. “I am happy to report that our confidence was well justified based both on his TCE scores and on the positive reviews given by our faculty during classroom observations.”
Swab’s excellence in teaching is also reflected in his student evaluations, which Wilson says are consistently “outstanding.”
“The scores are all the more remarkable given that these independently-taught classes are (1) introductory courses, (2) mostly taken by nonmajors, and (3) taught during the constantly changing classroom conditions brought on by the pandemic,” Wilson wtrote in his nomination of Swab. “Jack was adapting to course modality flexibilities during this time and his ability to get such high scores are a true testament to his skills in the classroom. The students are incredibly fortunate to have Jack as their instructor.”
In his teaching statement, Swab says a true collegiate experience goes beyond just graduating, but rather planting seeds for a life of personal happiness, career success and civic engagement.
“Geography is an important discipline from which to craft this version of undergraduate education — whether it be a general education class, an upper- division elective or a major-required class,” he said. “I enjoy teaching geography, because it requires commitments to consistently be relevant, thoughtful and engaging.”
In addition to this award, Swab received the 2022 Outstanding Geography Teaching Assistant Award and UK’s 2022 GradTeach Live! People’s Choice Award.
Swab will graduate with his Ph.D. this August and will begin a tenure-track faculty position at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, this fall.