“You have to respect students.  Let them open up and engage in their discovery,” says Associate Professor of Sociology Abye Assefa. 
           
Assefa helps students do just that not only through his classes on campus, but also in his home country, Ethiopia.  He first brought students there in 2006 to conduct sociological research. They spoke so highly of the chance to engage in sub-Saharan culture that he was inspired to continue leading trips and teaching courses every summer since.   
             
Assefa’s journey from Ethiopia to St. Lawrence was hardly a traditional one. He escaped to the U.S. in the early 1980s after a communist revolt led his country into turmoil.  Assefa enrolled immediately at SUNY Oswego, where he found his passion for understanding society and social problems that had afflicted the community he was forced to escape.  After earning his Ph.D at SUNY Binghamton, he was awarded a Jeffery Campbell Fellowship at St. Lawrence, granted to outstanding graduate students of color so that they can complete their dissertations and become professors. 
           
Although he teaches a wide variety of courses at St. Lawrence, Assefa never tires of seeing his students become invested and engaged in the material discussed in class. “For me, sociology gives students new tools applicable to their realities,” he says.
           
He was deeply humbled when he learned he was the 2012 recipient of the Maslow Award, which recognizes faculty members who have shown the most interest in and understanding of the education and welfare of the student body as a whole. 

“I am constantly learning from my students, and being recognized by them is the biggest award in this profession,” he says.

-Alli Shea ’13