Award recipients reflect on purpose, persistence, and learner success
University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) is guided by its mission to inspire hope, empower dreams, and transform lives ... one student at a time. Ahead of World Teachers’ Day on October 5, 2026, we spoke with three faculty members about why they teach, and what they have learned from their students.
They came to the university with different backgrounds but are driven to teach by a shared sense of passion, purpose, and legacy. All three received a 2026 UMGC Teaching Recognition Award, an honor that begins with student nominations.
Ericka Martinez, PhD, has taught Spanish at UMGC for the past nine years. Her interest in teaching began in childhood, when a priest asked her to help teach kindergarteners. “I knew it was my calling,” Martinez said. A psychologist by training, she likes learning about her students so she can meet them wherever they are on their learning journeys. If a student is anxious, Martinez helps them “harness that energy to move forward,” and if a learner is more advanced, she gives them “freedom to run ahead.”
Fredrick Murphy, DBA, is a military veteran who has taught PACE 111: Program and Career Exploration at UMGC for more than six years. Murphy has found ways to support and teach students since he was one. When a teacher told him he was not college material and that he should do something with his hands, he didn’t let that discourage him. “That teacher handed me a challenge,” Murphy said. It’s a challenge he’s taken and run with from tutoring fellow classmates in algebra, to teaching as a military instructor, to mentoring master’s and doctoral students.
James Wyatt, PhD has been teaching speech, literature, and writing courses at UMGC since 1993. Coming from a family of teachers, Wyatt knew he wanted to be one too. He recalls his first day of teaching as his hardest. At 21 years old, his students were around his age. He stuck with it because he knew the impact teachers could have and wanted to play a small part in his students’ lives. Wyatt, who is also a military veteran, has traveled around the world to teach, including in Korea, Guam, and Japan, where he’s been based for the past 27 years.
The rewards of teaching
For all three faculty members, the challenges of teaching come with rewards. For Martinez, the reward lies in how she feels at the end of each class. She leads activities, including singing in Spanish, to make her lessons more engaging and said she enjoys seeing students participate.
Wyatt gets excited at the end of every term and said he has enjoyed getting to know “thousands of students” over the years and being a part of their academic journeys. He said he’s had students reach out 20 years after taking his class to tell him about the difference he made in their lives.
Murphy enjoys seeing changes in students’ confidence over time, something he works to build in his classroom.
What today’s learners need
Drawing on decades of teaching experience, they shared advice about what it takes to teach today. “Teaching takes empathy and flexibility,” Martinez said. “You need to be flexible in understanding your students and how they best learn.” She took a class on artificial intelligence (AI) to better understand the technology and identify new ways to help her students learn course material.
Murphy shared that teaching takes a lot of commitment and devotion, a sentiment echoed by Wyatt. “Teaching is a lot of work, and you will think about it at odd times,” Wyatt said. But the reward has been watching students go on to accomplish great things, he said, noting the pride he felt seeing a former student on television, working as a journalist.
Having been adult learners themselves, Martinez, Murphy, and Wyatt understand the challenges working adults can face while pursuing a degree. “They have more demands on their time,” Martinez said. “It’s important to offer them support and flexibility.” All three faculty members said they enjoy teaching adults and noted that their learners tend to bring a range of life experiences into the classroom.
In addition to the students, the three faculty members value their colleagues and the UMGC environment. “I really sense the ‘global campus’ in terms of what UMGC stands for,” Murphy said, adding that he appreciates how the university works with and looks out for its military students and the flexibility of UMGC’s learning experiences.
Martinez said she enjoys her colleagues and the care they have shown for her, though she has never met most of them in person. Wyatt has appreciated the opportunity to travel and teach students from all over the world.
Lessons for learners
For learners at every stage of their journeys, the three faculty members offer practical advice. Murphy recommends patience and reaching out for help when learners need it. “You don’t have to struggle in silence,” he said.
Similarly, Martinez recommends taking advantage of resources UMGC offers to help learners succeed. She reminds students in her classes about resources such as their success coaches. “Keep learning,” she said.
Wyatt recommends learning how to manage time. “Usually time manages us,” he said. As a writing professor, he also encourages reading.
Taken together, the faculty members’ advice is practical: ask for help, keep going, manage your time, and keep learning.
The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense information or visuals does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.