MCIE Award for Support of Students with Disabilities

Andrea Payne

Instructor, General Education, CC

Gifted with a passion for helping her students succeed, City College General Education Instructor Andrea Payne uses her gift to create lasting impressions on all students she meets. Her unwavering dedication to students has granted her an MCIE Faculty Award for Exceptional Support of Students with Disabilities.

The award is designed to recognize MSU Billings faculty who have gone the extra mile providing exceptional support to a student with a disability. Payne strives to make higher education a positive experience for everyone, revealing to students their unique capabilities for learning. For one student, it was Payne who made the difference in her academic success.

“I struggled with learning issues in math so not only did I hate it, I truly did not believe I was capable of learning math,” one of her students said. But after joining Payne’s class and experiencing her teaching style, the student was able to earn an A in the class. “She took the time to get to know and embrace my learning style and was able to teach me in a way I understood.”

Payne can be described as positive, patient, understanding, cheerful, and above all supportive of her students and their path to success. “She showed me that I was capable of learning,” said another student. “Having her as a teacher did not just strengthen me in math, but made me able to face other subjects no matter how scared I was to learn them.”

After graduating from MSU Billings in 2000, Payne began teaching developmental math at the university in 2001. She then went on to earn two more degrees from MSU Billings, including her master’s in 2005.

Even with a full teaching schedule both onsite and online, Payne has dedicated her nearly 20 years at MSU Billings to ensuring every student has what they need to succeed.