Rayvell Snowden, a longtime welding instructor at Allan Hancock College, was recently named the 2009 winner of the California Community College Association for Occupational Education Excellence in Teaching Award.
The win came as no surprise to Anne Cremarosa, dean of academic affairs, who nominated Snowden for the statewide honor.
“Ray is well respected within the industry, and I think that Hancock’s great reputation for having a strong welding vocational program is truly a testament to him,” Cremarosa said in a press release.
Snowden came to Hancock as an instructor in 1982. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Cal State Fresno in vocational education, and a master’s degree in education administration from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. His education, however, started not in the classroom, but in the Navy.
“I was one of the first illiterate athletes to graduate from high school,” Snowden said in the release. “I knew I couldn’t go to college, so I joined the Navy.”
There, he learned how to weld and other valuable life skills, which set him on the track toward higher education. After leaving the Navy, Snowden went on to work as a welder, an occupation he enjoyed and that paid well. But after years of welding, he could feel the strain on his back and neck. So at the age of 28, he went back to school.
Today, Snowden uses his life experiences and expertise as a welder to better connect with his students. Over the years, his teaching has impacted more than 5,000 people.
“I can’t think of any of the students that he’s had or been around that haven’t just loved him,” Harold Collins, a part-time instructor at Hancock and former student of Snowden’s, said in the release.
This article appears in Mar 12-19, 2009.