“I was terribly shy, very uncomfortable with groups,” said the Commerce professor after receiving the award at Spring Convocation. “I was the stereotypical accountant” but for his first teaching assignment, at the University of Manitoba, Phillips made the decision to transform himself. He fluctuated his voice. He forced himself to walk up the centre aisle of the classroom as far as the third row before retreating (the next day he made it to row five). He used self-deprecating humour, all because “I knew I had to experiment and, in the end, I’ve become the instructor I wanted to be on that first day.”

Having been nominated for, or won, a teaching award every year since joining the U of S in 1996, Phillips explained that receiving the Master Teacher award was gratifying, but it lacks the long-term impact of the comments students make on teaching evaluations forms. “Those personal statements really stick with a person. That’s what changes me.”

And what students say about Phillips’ teaching can be summed up by one sentence from his award citation: “Students are in awe of Fred’s ability to hold 120 of them enthralled about accounting on a Monday morning at 8:30 a.m.!”

To read the entire story about Fred Phillips, go to Master Teacher.