What does it feel like to receive an honor like Outstanding Faculty Woman Award? Joan R. Mylroie found out last week, but she is still the same geography teacher students have always known.
One beautiful Friday afternoon she was sitting in her office distracted by her work and the phone rang. “Me?” she said after she answered.
The first thing Mylroie did was jump up from her desk and go into the hall to tell a fellow faculty member her wonderful news. To her surprise, nobody was in sight. She rushed down the stairs and found Dr. Charlie Wax. He congratulated her before she had time to speak-he received a phone call just a few moments before she did.
In order to win the award, someone had to nominate her, and Wax was responsible for her nomination. Not only do you have to get nominated, letters of support also have to be written to receive this award. Dr. Mark Binkley and Dr. Darrel Schmitz contributed letters of support to the President’s Commission on the Status of Women.
“I owe my award to my fellow faculty members-these kinds of things do not happen on their own. I want to thank everyone I work with, and this award belongs to our department also,” Mylroie said.
Before arriving on campus at Mississippi State, she graduated from Syracuse University and received a bachelor’s degree in zoology. At Syracuse she met her husband, Dr. John Mylroie. Falling in love with him made her decision to stay at Syracuse University, where she then continued school and completed her master’s degree in science education.
From there she and her husband moved to Kentucky. Mylroie taught biology and microbiology at Murray State in Kentucky.
Next Mylroie became a mother. She stayed at home with her three sons, was active in PTA, coached soccer and was a cub scouts leader and a Sunday school teacher.
“I enjoyed every minute of being a stay-at-home mom. I would not take back any of those precious memories for anything,” Mylroie said.
As her kids began to mature, her family moved to Starkville because her husband was offered the job as the head of the Department of Geosciences.
In 1996, Mylroie became a faculty member at MSU and taught world geography. She said that to this day she still enjoys everything about teaching.
“I come to class dressed in costumes for the particular part of the world we are studying at the time, and I also play music from different cultures as a way of exploring more about our world,” Mylroie said.
Mylroie said she wants her students to understand the way the world is in all countries and the way things are the same and different. Globalization is just a phone call or e-mail away, and we need to know what it is like on the other line.
Mylroie continues to teach world geography, along with Sunday school at Trinity Presbyterian Church. When she has spare time, she loves to attend MSU sporting events and wants students to know that the faculty cares about them inside and outside of the classroom.
“I am truly a Bulldog fan at heart, and I love Mississippi-I would never go anywhere else, and I am very thankful I ended up here,” Mylroie said.