Mohave Community College is honoring Math Instructor Laurel Clifford for her outstanding efforts to help students.
Mohave Community College is honoring Math Instructor Laurel Clifford for her outstanding efforts to help students.
“She is truly a phenomenal teacher who puts the students first,” wrote the student who nominated Clifford for the Ellen Licari Service to Students award.
Laurel worked with Ellen Licari at the Lake Havasu City campus, and watched Ellen go above and beyond to help students succeed. Licari was an MCC Student Advisor who passed away in 2011.
“She was a wonderful example of somebody who cared about students, so I was just humbled and honored that I would receive the award that is in her name,” said Clifford.
Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Laurel Clifford and her husband moved to Lake Havasu City to be closer to family, and escape the rain and clouds.
She joined MCC twenty years ago, pursuing her passion of educating, encouraging and empowering students to succeed in math.
She developed some of her popular teaching style after reading studies about the Japanese approach to education – looking at how the individual student thinks and what the student knows.
“So it’s taking the student’s ideas and saying, ‘OK, what is correct about this, where are they heading with this and how can we build on that? Rather than saying, ‘You’re not doing it my way,’” said Clifford.
The college will honor her at the 48th annual Mohave Community College Commencement Ceremony May 10, which will be the first large event held at the new Anderson Auto Group Fieldhouse in Bullhead City. “Laurel Clifford clearly puts the students first,” said Dr. Diana Stithem, MCC Interim President “If you can put people at ease, get them excited about learning math and have them succeed, you are doing something very special, which is a big reason she’s our 2019 Licari Award Winner.”
