Salisbury University: SU's Koval Earns 2012 Hewitt Master Teacher Award

For Mike Koval, good news often comes in threes.

In 2003, he gave up his full-time private law practice to become a stay-at-home dad to his new triplets. Seeking to re-enter the job market three years later, he was hired as an adjunct faculty member in Salisbury University's Management and Marketing Department in the Franklin P. Perdue School of Business. Three years after that, in 2009, he joined the department's Accounting and Legal Studies faculty, teaching legal environment and business law.

Now, three years later, he has been named one of the nation's top legal studies educators, earning the Academy of Legal Studies in Business' prestigious Charles M. Hewitt Master Teacher Award.

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The honor is presented annually to a legal studies faculty member teaching at a business school. The award highlights faculty who lead the way in incorporating new subject matter, cultural shifts, and advances in pedagogy and technology into their classes. As one of four finalists, Koval attended the academy's annual conference in Kansas City, MO, making a presentation before a crowd of some 200 peers.

“My focus was on engaging students with course content on the first day of class,” he said. “I shared a method for faculty to teach law in that first class, rather than just read the course syllabus and tell students how their grades will be calculated.”

His presentation is expected to be available soon on the academy's Web site, http://alsb.mobi.

​As this year's winner, Koval received $500 and the traditional golden apple trophy. He will chair the panel to evaluate nominations for next year's award and moderate the presentations at the academy's 2013 conference in Boston.