Dr. Cynthia Phillips Kolsun, of Parsons, was recently awarded the West Virginia AdvancED Excellence in Education Award. Dr. Kolsun spent 42 years in the educational realm, beginning her teaching career in Hendry County, Fla. and realizing that she loved working with students. While there, she initiated a theater program, creative writing and composition courses and served as advisor of a yearbook which received recognition from the University of Columbia Press Association.
“The Excellence in Education Award” recognizes one individual in each of the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA CASI), Northwest Accreditation Commission (NWAC), and Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement ((SACS CASI) states for the recipient’s achievement in education. Nominees were judges on their contributions of working towards higher expectations, demonstrating a record of significant and distinguished contributions to education, providing a lasting positive impact on student learning, and serving as a role model and mentor for future generations as well as demonstrating significant professional contribution to NCA CASI.
Kolsun received her BS in Secondary Education Language Arts (emphasis in English, Speech, Drama and Journalism) from West Virginia University, her MA in Counseling Psychology from University of South Florida, her Administrative Certificate from Marshall University and her Doctoral Degree in Education from West Virginia University.
Kolsun has had a rich educational career where she has served as a junior high and high school teacher, counselor, adult night administrator at a career and technical center, an assistant superintendent of schools, superintendent of schools, a coordinator with the West Virginia Department of Education and an assistant professor at Marshall University.
“I’ve had a great educational career primarily because I’ve been able to put good teams of professionals together. For instance, when I began my superintendency in Tucker County, we had so little funding for anything but the bare basics. I had written a number of grants in Randolph County and taught grant writing classes, and my team and I went to work. We wrote grants to bring in literally millions of dollars to Tucker County for technology, foreign languages, reading, after school programs, student resources, facilities, summer reading programs and other services,” Kolsun explained.
“We looked at areas that we could provide a larger variety of opportunities and implemented a drama program at TCHS (after the completion of the high school auditorium) and upgraded arts programs at the schools. Eastern Technical College had just begun, and we partnered with them to provide a new computer lab which was used by our students and theirs. Eastern offered college classes in our county which provided additional educational opportunities not only for our high school students, but for our adults.”
Two recognitions that came to Tucker County under Kolsun’s leadership were one year Tucker County had the lowest dropout rate in the state. The next year, Tucker County had the highest graduation rate.
“Once again, this was a team effort. We emphasized what we thought was important,” Kolsun said.
While working for the West Virginia Department of Education, Kolsun co-authored two documents which provided guidance for the state’s 55 counties. “What Does a 21st Century High School Look Like?” and “What Does a 21st Century School System Look Like?” were well researched and designed to be practical to use.
Kolsun was named a “State appointed superintendent” in Hampshire County. Within 15 months she was able to help the Hampshire County Board regain partial control of their system. That was the shortest time a school system had been under state control.
“It was the hard work, and everyone working together,” Kolsun said. “We had a huge deficient that had to be dealt with.
“I’ve never had so much fun as I had working in career and technical centers.” In 1992 her Guidance Program was named the State Vocational Program of the Year. “We had students at our school who wanted to be there. We worked not only on teaching skills, but on teaching the importance of work ethic and other job seeking and keeping skills.”
Kolsun took a fledging adult night vocational program and turned it into a vibrant one. Students were able to study pilot training, real estate skills, and computers and woodworking, among other classes. At that time she taught Psychology for Fairmont State College at the Randolph County Career and Technical School for 14 semesters.
Other awards included recognition for working with disabled students from the WV Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, national counseling certification, and the Business and Professional Woman’s Club Woman of the Year.
She completed her educational career at Marshall University as an assistant professor and coordinator of doctoral programs. During that time she served as Chair of the Hedrick Teaching Award Committee and the Marshall Professor of the year became the WV Professor of the Year.
“My greatest accomplishments in education have been the opportunities I’ve had to work with wonderful people—teachers, administrators and most importantly, students. Students constantly remind us that there is hope for the future. It is up to us, however, to do our job and ensure that they are receiving the best education we can give them.
“I would like to thank AdvancED for this award as I have enjoyed helping schools work toward continuous improvement. I don’t know how deserving I am as there are so many wonderful educators, but I am honored to be the recipient of the Excellence in Education Award for 2014,” she said.
Kolsun is the wife of Bruce Kolsun, Parson City Councilman. She is the mother of two children – Stacey Harper, a stay-at-home mom and her husband Jason, a vice president for Mylan Pharmaceuticals and Phillips Kolsun, a senior consultant for BMC Technologies. She has four grandchildren: Jackson, Evie, Will and Ben.
