NCU Magazine: Dr. Carolyn Tennant
By Christopher Fletcher
Photo by Emily Overturf
Sitting across from Dr. Carolyn Tennant in her office on the North Central campus, I notice the walls are bare of the framed sheets of paper that often adorn the offices of faculty. Then she hands me the Distinguished Educator Award she received this summer and confides, “This one is really cool.” She hints that it might be the only academic honor to share a place on the wall alongside Excalibur and a portrait of Joan of Arc.
Surrounded by these artifacts of bygone eras, Tennant reminds me of a modern-day monk. She peers inquisitively at me through her glasses, as if trying to figure out how to teach me more about the craft of interviewing without tipping me off to her process. And she’d be the one to do it; her doctoral dissertation was on higher-level thinking skills. She can get students to think before they know what hit them. She is a teacher’s teacher.
It is for excellence in teaching, among other things, that Tennant was presented with the Distinguished Educator Award this summer by The Alliance for Assemblies of God Higher Education. The award acknowledges Tennant’s significant contribution to education within the Assemblies of God and comes during her 25th year at NCU.
Annually the Alliance holds a special luncheon where awards for years of service in A/G higher education are presented. In addition to these awards, the Alliance also presents the Distinguished Educator Award to a select few. The honor is only conferred every two years, and then only when there are candidates worthy of receiving it.
As I hold the plaque reverently in my hands, I see it has the words “Delta Alpha” inscribed on its surface. The words come from the Greek for “teacher of excellence.” A brief survey of Tennant’s career with North Central shows her to be most definitely a teacher of excellence in every sense of the word.
One of the requirements for the award is “a significant number years in A/G educational institutions.” Before stepping into a teaching role, Tennant served for almost 20 years in a Vice President’s role (three of them, to be exact). When, in 2002, Tennant finally took a position in the English department, it was like sliding into a pair of comfortable slippers. It was already a part of who she was. “Even when I was on a church staff for a couple years, I was doing consulting at the same time,” she says. “I’ve never been out of the field of education.”
In addition to academics, the award looks for an “ability to influence students in spiritual growth.” A lover of C. S. Lewis and Stephen Lawhead, Tennant sees scholarship as a component of her spiritual life, not the other way around. “Every time a person develops more in their knowledge they have to also develop in their spirit,” she says with a conviction born out of experience. “As soon as I got my doctorate, as soon as I got my masters, there were things I had to do spiritually to balance,” she tells me. “God would take me farther and put me out there on the edge of faith.”
She knows that it is important to have “knowledge on fire” and I can tell that the topic makes her want to preach right now, to her audience of one. So she does, a little. “That’s what makes a change in the world,” she says. “When the Spirit is strong and [students] know something.”
My eye travels to the copies of “In Awe in Argentina” that sit atop a filing cabinet. Tennant served as editor for the book, which outlines the history and experiences of the Argentine revival. I remember that she’s been there herself, ministering through her gift of preaching. She is an educator who practices what she teaches.
If it were not for the fact that the Distinguished Educator Award is presented for a lifetime achievement, I have no doubt Tennant would be awarded it again for her consistent demonstration of knowledge on fire.
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