Demilio Receives Excellence in Teaching Award
Instructor Nick Demilio (right) with Ed and Peggie Moore. Nash Community College Physical Therapist Assistant Instructor Nick Demilio has been named by his peers as the 2012 J. Edgar and Peggie T. Moore Excellence in Teaching Award recipient.
Nash Community College Health Sciences Instructor Nick Demilio is the recipient of the 2012 J. Edgar and Peggie T. Moore Excellence in Teaching Award.
The Excellence in Teaching Award nominees are chosen through a peer and a student evaluation process from all full-time faculty members each year. There is a well-defined set of criteria developed to identify and reward quality teaching. The recipient is chosen by secret ballot by the full-time faculty and represents the “best” in community college instruction.
As an instructor in the Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) program, Nick Demilio has helped hundreds of graduates qualify to take the PTA licensure exam, and over the years they’ve passed this exam at a rate, and with scores, consistently above the state and national averages. This has allowed them to provide an estimated collective quarter of a million patient treatments and counting.“My goal is to prepare students to work and succeed in the real world and most of all to provide physical therapy care based on what I call The Grandma Principle – which refers to the way you would want your loved ones to be treated. You certainly want a knowledgeable professional standing over their bed, but you also want someone who simply treats them “right” – with dignity, respect, and common courtesy,” Demilio said.
As the 2012 recipient of the award, Demilio received a cash award from Ed and Peggie Moore and served as Faculty Marshal for the College’s spring graduation programs. He will also represent NCC in the statewide North Carolina Community College System’s Excellence in Teaching Award process.
“I simply try to treat my students fairly: high standards are set, expectations are laid out in advance, and policies are adhered to. This is leavened with human consideration and with a sense of humor. Students have to be able to absorb a lot of information to graduate and become licensed as a PTA. They have to understand the Grandma Principle to become a good one. We aim for both here,” he added.
Demilio holds a Bachelor of Science degree and Master of Science degree in Physical Therapy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Demilio lives in Rocky Mount and began his career at Nash Community College in 1987.
