{"id":55295,"date":"2026-06-11T10:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T15:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/?p=55295"},"modified":"2026-06-12T09:29:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T14:29:00","slug":"chancellors-awards-faculty-of-the-year-honors-bestowed-at-rellis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/chancellors-awards-faculty-of-the-year-honors-bestowed-at-rellis\/","title":{"rendered":"Chancellor\u2019s Awards, Faculty of the Year Honors Bestowed at RELLIS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 Two Tarleton State University students and an instructor at Texas A&M-RELLIS in Bryan received high honors during the RELLIS Academic Alliance commencement ceremony May 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two
Left and center: Kennadee Fisk and Andrew Crawford received the Chancellor’s Award during the RELLIS Academic Alliance commencement ceremony in May. Right: Faculty of the Year Award winner Stephen Opskar, an instructor in the Department of Sport Professions, is shown with Dr. Nancy Shankle, Associate Vice Chancellor and Provost of the RELLIS Academic Alliance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Opskar, an instructor in the Department of Sport Professions, received the Faculty of the Year Award, an honor bestowed to top professors and researchers across the RELLIS Academic Alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students Kennadee Fisk, an education major, and Andrew Crawford, a mechanical engineering technology major, won the Chancellor\u2019s Award, one of the highest honors awarded to students within The Texas A&M System, which recognizes graduating students at the RELLIS campus who consistently live by the core values of RELLIS (Respect, Excellence, Leadership, Integrity, and Selfless Service).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opskar is the second faculty member to receive the RELLIS honor. Students submitted nominations, which were then assessed based on factors like nominees\u2019 involvement in student activities, student organizations and\/or recruiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Nancy Shankle, Associate Vice Chancellor and Provost of the RELLIS Academic Alliance, lauded Opskar\u2019s dedication and leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFaculty members like Professor Opskar are at the heart of the RELLIS experience,\u201d Dr. Shankle said. \u201cThe Faculty of the Year Award recognizes not only excellence in teaching, but also a deep and genuine commitment to supporting students both inside and outside the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opskar expressed his gratitude for the honor and student recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe greatest reward in teaching is seeing students connect classroom concepts to real-world applications and future careers, which makes this award especially meaningful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fisk credited close relationships with faculty and staff at RELLIS with giving her the confidence to embrace opportunities and experiences beyond the classroom. While at RELLIS she collaborated in conferences and committees that helped her develop professionally and prepare for her career in education. As she looks forward to the next chapter of her journey as an elementary school resource teacher, Fisk said she anticipates \u201csupporting students, building relationships and creating a positive learning environment where all students feel successful and encouraged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crawford\u2019s nomination letter described him as not only an exceptional student, but a stellar representative of RELLIS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAndrew was not only a pillar of exceptional stature and academically excellent, but he demonstrated teamwork in a way that has been unmatched in my time at RELLIS,\u201d said Dr. Jeff Hatala. Described as the \u201cconsummate team player,\u201d Crawford collaborated on a paper highlighting the impact of engineering on society and balancing design with societal wellness in an interdisciplinary experimental course and was lauded for his ability to present difficult technical information in understandable terms to his health science and health psychology peers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 Two Tarleton State University students and an instructor at Texas A&M-RELLIS in Bryan received high honors during the RELLIS Academic Alliance commencement ceremony May 8. Stephen Opskar, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":473,"featured_media":55298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_wds_title":"","_wds_metadesc":"","_wds_focus-keywords":"","_wds_meta-robots-adv":"","_wds_meta-robots-noindex":false,"_wds_meta-robots-nofollow":false,"_wds_meta-robots-index":false,"_wds_meta-robots-follow":false,"_wds_autolinks-exclude":false,"_wds_canonical":"","_wds_redirect":"","_wds_opengraph":[],"_wds_twitter":[],"wds_primary_category":422,"footnotes":""},"categories":[422,426],"tags":[454],"class_list":["post-55295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-morestories","category-honors-achievements","tag-rellis"],"acf":{"image":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"ehellmund@tarleton.edu","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/ehellmundtarleton-edu\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2026\/06\/RELLIS-Gates-300x200.png","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["_morestories<\/a>","Honors & Achievements<\/a>"],"unlinked":["_morestories<\/span>","Honors & Achievements<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["RELLIS<\/a>"],"unlinked":["RELLIS<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 4 days ago","modified":"Updated 3 days ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on June 11, 2026","modified":"Updated on June 12, 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on June 11, 2026 10:00 am","modified":"Updated on June 12, 2026 9:29 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/473"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55295"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55306,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55295\/revisions\/55306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}