UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Jaime Schultz, associate professor of kinesiology, has been recognized as one of the best teachers among Penn State’s more than 6,400 faculty members.
Schultz is a 2016 recipient of the George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching, named for the seventh president of the University. The award is presented to faculty members who have devoted substantial effort to undergraduate teaching.
“To me this award means the world,” Schultz said. “I have always wanted to teach, and it’s been incredibly important to me for as long as I can remember. It’s something I’m passionate about. I’ve had to devote a lot of time and effort to getting comfortable in the classroom and improving my teaching-and-learning techniques. I still have a lot to learn.”
Schultz said sports — though popular for their own reasons — provide a gateway to talk about larger issues, such as race, gender, sexuality, social class, ability and disability.
“Sport certainly matters to the Penn State community,” Schultz said. “Some students are avid fans, while others express indifference and even antipathy toward athletics. I love those conflicting opinions, for they feed discussions about what sport means and why it is so important to our society. The topic offers common ground on which to have important conversations, most of which stretch far beyond the field of play.”
Schultz joined the Department of Kinesiology at Penn State in 2010. She also is an affiliate faculty member in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. From 2006 to 2010, she was an assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of Maryland, College Park.
She earned a bachelor's degree in English and Spanish at Luther College in 1996, a master's degree in psychology of sport at the University of Iowa in 1999, and a doctorate in cultural studies of sport at the University of Iowa in 2005.
Schultz received a Teaching Excellence Award from the College of Health and Human Development at Penn State in 2012-13, 2014-15 and 2015-16. She is an assistant editor for the Journal of Sport History and a section editor for the Journal of Sport History. She also serves on the editorial board for the International Journal of the History of Sport and Sport History Review. Last fall she was a resident scholar with the Institute for the Arts and Humanities.
Schultz is the author of two books, "Qualifying Times: Points of Change in U.S. Women's Sport" and "Moments of Impact: Injury, Racialized Memory, and Reconciliation in College Football."