Three members of Georgia Southern University Faculty have been named as Governor's Teaching Fellows for the year 2012.

As Governor's Teaching Fellows, the three faculty members will work with other extraordinary professors from both public and private institutions across the state of Georgia.

Sabrina Ross, assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum, Foundations and Reading and June Joyner, an instructor in the Department of Writing & Linguistics are selected for the Summer Symposium Program for 2012.

Steve Vives, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Biology and professor of biology, has been selected for the 2012-2013 Academic Year Symposia Program.

"Georgia Southern University is fortunate to have an outstanding group of faculty members and we are very proud of Sabrina, June and Steve," said Jean Bartels, Ph.D., provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at Georgia Southern, in a press release issued by the university.

"These individuals have distinguished themselves as outstanding teachers and this is not only a terrific honor, but an opportunity to work with their colleagues throughout the state to improve higher education in Georgia," he said.

The Governor's Teaching Fellow program, established in 1995 by Gov. Zell Miller, provides a select number of faculty members from the state's higher education to interact with fellow professors and to develop their teaching skills to be in sync with new emerging technologies.

The collaborative work throughout the academic year is expected to help Fellows to learn new approaches to teaching and to foster a relationship between professionals from myriad disciplines.

The fellowship allows them to participate in academic year symposia, an intensive summer symposium, or an academic-year residency at the University of Georgia.

Past symposia have reportedly addressed numerous topics in using technology in the classroom and other pedagogical innovations.

The university based in Statesboro, which opened the season by defeating Jacksonville few days back, has more than one reason to celebrate, as it appears. It will also be hosting Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright Sept.18.