Penn State Shenango's assistant professor of history, Dr. Philip Nash, was honored to receive an award for doing what he loves most: bringing the past to life for his students.

"There's nothing I'd rather be recognized for than my teaching," he said.

Nash received the Leonard R. Riforgiato Memorial Teaching Award at PSU Shenango's Honors Convocation and Recognition Ceremony at the Oak Tree Country Club, West Middlesex.

He knew he had been nominated for the award by some of his students, but was surprised when he was named as the recipient.

"This is the nicest award I've ever received," Nash said. "It's quite an honor."

The award is named for Dr. Riforgiato, the campus's first recipient of the PSU Shenango teaching award. He taught history at the campus for 26 years until he passed away in 1999.

Award nominees have to be full-time faculty members. The students who nominated him were required to fill out an application and write three letters of recommendation. Ten letters were received nominating Nash, including one written by student Becky Ramp.

"A lot of the students on campus really enjoy his teaching," she said. "He makes the subject of history interesting."

Ms. Ramp has taken three of Nash's classes because of his unique teaching methods. She said his lessons make her feel like she's in the time period of the events and people he discusses.

"It was almost like he was telling a story more than a lecture," Ms. Ramp said.

Nash lives in Aspinwall, Pa., which means he drives over an hour to teach at the Sharon school. Ms. Ramp said that's a sign of a good teacher who wants to help out his students as much as possible.

"He's one of the very few instructors that really gets involved with student activities on campus," she said.

Since Nash began teaching at Penn State Shenango in 1999, he has taken part in various campus events and organizations. He currently serves as the Commonwealth College Faculty Senator and was recently named academic advisor for the campus's new 4-year Letters, Arts and Sciences degree program.

Nash is chair of the Campus Library Committee and will serve as interim director of the college's honors program during the upcoming school year.

In February, Nash delivered a speech titled "Republicans, Rebels and Race" at the campus's Cultural Diversity Symposium. In March, he was moderator of an open campus forum on the war in Iraq.

He wrote "The Other Missiles of October: Eisenhower, Kennedy and the Jupiters 1957-1963," published in 1997. Nash also wrote an article for the journal "Diplomacy and State Craft," and may publish another in "Historian."

These articles focus on the first female ambassadors to the United States from 1933-1964, which is Nash's current research project. He has been researching archives on the topic through grants from Penn State Research Development and Minnesota Historical Society.

Nash said he chose the subject because it hasn't been studied much. He is researching how women succeeded and survived in diplomacy and foreign affairs.

"I was very interested in how women first bashed into male dominance," he said. "How did we get from the point when there were none to the point where it's relatively acceptable?"

Nash currently volunteers at Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center, where he is helping to create a database of digital historical photos to be displayed on the Internet. Most of the photos are of people and buildings in western Pennsylvania, but many of them have no labels. It is Nash's job to find out what's in the photos.

Nash grew up in Los Angeles and graduated cum laude in 1985 from Occidental College, earning his bachelor's degree in diplomacy and world affairs. He earned his master's in 1988 from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston.

Nash received his doctorate in history from Ohio University in 1994. He taught at OU, the University of Nevada, Middle Tennessee State University and the University of Cincinnati.

Nash said he was drawn to PSU because it's a very prestigious institution. His courses include the history of the United States, the Holocaust and Vietnam, which focuses on the Vietnamese side of the war.

Since he was a child, Nash has been interested in history. Before attending graduate school, he was studying international relations, then he decided history was the field for him. His area of specialization is U.S. Foreign Relations.

"I love history and I'm enthusiastic about it. I just let that enthusiasm show," he said.

Nash said that's how he reaches out to students who think history is boring. For his Holocaust class, he's invited survivors to speak to the students about their experiences.

"If I can make history a little less painful, that's a little more rewarding," he said.

Nash lives in Aspinwall with his wife, Soo Chun Lu, a history professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.