Wilmington College Interim President Corey Cockerill presents Dr. Jason Parrish with the GC3 Teaching Excellence Award.
Submitted photo
Dr. Jason T. Parrish represented Wilmington College as its 2023 Teaching Excellence Award winner at the Greater Cincinnati Collegiate Connection’s 36th-annual Celebration of Teaching event held earlier this month.
An assistant professor of agriculture and a faculty member since 2021, Parrish was recognized along with 22 other award recipients from GC3’s other member institutions.
Parrish is a plant scientist teaching undergraduate courses in agronomy and horticulture at the College.
“I am a lifelong plant geek,” he said.
Parrish has previous teaching and research experience as a graduate research and teaching associate at Ohio State University. He also has technical product development experience at ICL Specialty Fertilizers and as a freelance agricultural consultant who conducts lab, greenhouse and field research with top-tier universities and industry-leading agricultural companies.
WC’s Student Government Association selected him last spring as the 2022-23 faculty member of the year.
WC InterimPresident Corey Cockerill described Parrish as the type of professor who can bring the classroom to life. “He recognizes the importance of connecting theory to practice and builds his lessons around experiences that facilitate learning. His passion is clear and contagious—students just flock to him.”
Cockerill, who previously served on the agriculture faculty with Parrish, added that agronomy is a challenging field, but he makes it accessible. “Students could easily learn about weeds or crop diseases from a book chapter — but that’s not Jason’s style. He takes them to the farm, into the field, and really, to the soil level where learning becomes more like discovery.”
The GC3, formerly known as the Greater Cincinnati Consortium of College & Universities, advocates for higher education and uses the collective strength of its institutional members to positively influence the value of higher learning in the greater Cincinnati region. It also promotes professional development and opportunities for collaborative learning to advance the effectiveness of all members.
