NW artist, teacher mentors students
by Diana De Leon, Feature Editor

   Four faculty members received the highest teaching award given by Tarrant County College, the Chancellor's Award, at the May commencement.
   The award recognizes faculty who demonstrate a strong commitment and dedication to the ideal of teaching.
   Started by founding Chancellor Joe B. Rushing in 1986, the award is given to one instructor from each campus annually.
   Winners are determined by an anonymous committee who closely scrutinizes the attributes and qualifications of each nominee.
   This is the first in a series profiling the winners.

  Role model, mentor, artist describes the NW Campus recipient of the 2003 Chancellor's Award.
   An instructor with TCC for 27 years, Eduardo Aguilar accepted the award with a bit of surprise.
   "I feel very blessed to have won the first time I was nominated," he said.
   A graduate of Trinity University and the University of North Texas, he started his teaching career in the Edgewood ISD near San Antonio.
   Aguilar has taught middle school in Joshua, and he has taught at the University of North Texas.
   "The award was a total surprise," he said. "There was a certain amount of elation when it was announced."
   The standards by which nominees are judged start with student evaluations, which measure successful teaching.
   Aguilar has received consistently favorable evaluations of his teaching, Rosa Chavez, department chair of fine arts and languages on NW Campus, said.
   "He has a genuine rapport with students," she said. "He is a true role model for them."
   Aguilar believes that teaching is mentoring, supporting, encouraging and, above all, interacting.
   His focus is not just on learning, but also on one's development as an artist, according to former student Kiki Ford.
   "He is well considered by all his students," Chavez said.
   Aguilar invites students to exhibit their work and requires students to submit work to competitions. He also serves as advisor to art majors.
   Through the Art Encounter Club and creative classroom assignments, exhibits of student work, lectures and demonstrations, Aguilar creates opportunities for students to broaden their visual awareness.
   "He always makes himself available to any student," Scott Parker, instructor of art, said. "I am not surprised he won this award."
   According to Parker, Aguilar gives his time to students of all majors and from all campuses and puts extra effort into listening and helping them along their way.
   As the only full-time art instructor on NW Campus, Aguilar teaches a wide range of art classes and also is the driving and creative force behind the campus' visual arts program.
   Aguilar coordinates six exhibits a year in the Lakeview Gallery and at other viewing areas on the NW Campus.
   This job includes everything from concept to conclusion such as design of invitations, artists chosen to participate and the hanging and placement of art.
   "If you want to have a legitimate visual arts program, you have to have a gallery," he said.
   Aguilar said exhibits in the gallery are carefully orchestrated with attention given to the enrichment of students and the community.
     Aguilar looks for instructional value and interest among artists throughout the United States.
   "We want to introduce these artists to our campus and to our community," he said. "Part of my job is exposing students to the visual arts." An example of Aguilar's extra effort is his invitation to some cash-strapped artists to stay in his home when in town for an exhibit.
   Aguilar also excels in community involvement, another criteria for the award.
   He has worked as a board member for many local organizations including the Saginaw Parks and Recreation Board, Family Services, Inc. and the Texas Girls Choir Board and numerous other organizations.
   Aguilar's community involvement also includes serving as a jury member or judge for many local as well as national art competitions.
   He attends career day at many local area schools at the high school and middle school levels to lecture about and demonstrate the world of art.
   "He seems to have that calling to serve," Chavez said. "He has that desire to help." The Chancellor's Award is not the first time Aguilar has received recognition for his professional accomplishments.
   This year marks the first time the Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education has given the Distinguished Community College Faculty Award, and its first recipient was Aguilar.
   Aguilar received the award for promoting higher education for Latino students. In 2002 he won the Golden Apple Teaching award and the Distinguished Speaker Award. Aguilar's specialty is drawing and painting. He has exhibited in many individual and group shows throughout the state and locally.
   His art career has been in five phases: figurative subjects, non-objective landscapes, portraits of artists he admires such as Frida Kahlo, self portraits and realistic landscapes and still-life sand paintings. His work is exhibited in private and permanent collections.
   As a teaching professional, Aguilar serves or has served in various capacities in a broad range of professional organizations. He currently serves as president of the NW Campus Faculty Association and has been a senator and secretary of the association as well.
   Aguilar is also president-elect of Texas Association of Schools of Art. Reflecting on the Chancellor's Award, Aguilar believes he was at the right place and time with the right credentials.
   With three nominees from each campus, Aguilar believes each one is a winner.
    "When you compete and you get first, second or third, then we are all winners," he said.
   Each winner uses the cash prize that comes with the Chancellor's Award differently.
   Aguilar thinks he will use his money as part of his 40th wedding anniversary celebration, which means a trip to Spain and maybe some other countries.
   "I love what I do, mentoring students in the visual arts," he said. "I don't ever want to retire."