By Fred Sgambati (’83, ’85)

Some people might think that success in university is only about grades and graduation. But Acadia’s convocation is a celebration of the many individual roads to success students are travelling as they cross the stage. Many professors understand that success is deeply personal and work hard to tailor each student’s academic experience to ensure superb personal and professional achievement.

Dr. Ryan MacNeil is no exception. His innovative teaching style and passion for his students is extraordinary.

MacNeil holds the Rath Professorship in Entrepreneurship at Acadia and has a full-time, tenured faculty position in the F. C. Manning School of Business as an associate professor. He teaches a variety of courses in entrepreneurship and small business management while studying post-industrial entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic development.

His goal is to help students develop their agency and self-authorship. He asks them to think critically about entrepreneurship and innovation in their communities, economies, and their own lives. In all his courses, students pursue entrepreneurship experiences and choose their own adventures. MacNeil’s role is to coach, facilitate, and challenge their thinking along the way, an approach that has made him a campus favourite and one he finds intrinsically rewarding.

Small wonder his course offerings are heavily subscribed, and his impact in and out of the classroom has had a transformative effect. It’s also why he is the 2023 recipient of the Acadia Alumni Association Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, which recognizes a continued record of excellence in teaching students and future alumni of Acadia University with a focus on professional and teaching accomplishments.

MacNeil says, “I came to Acadia because I knew this place would give me a chance to engage with students in learning experiences that simply don’t happen anywhere else. I’m humbled and grateful for this award because I see it as recognition that I’m contributing to the Acadia magic.”

That contribution has been acknowledged far and wide. As a result of his teaching performance at Acadia, the Acadia Students’ Union has honoured him with its Faculty of Professional Studies Teaching Award twice (2016 and 2018) and a national peer jury awarded MacNeil and fellow professor Michael Sheppard the Canadian Council of Small Business and Entrepreneurship’s Innovative Course

Award in 2012 (for the design of their course, Venture Creation). For his scholarship of teaching and learning, he has also received the Best Paper Award in the Management Education Division of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (2014), which is the teaching and learning division of the national business schools’ association. He went on to co-chair that division in 2022.

Meanwhile, his research on entrepreneurship education and development has been presented at multiple regional, national, and international conferences and appears in three internationally edited books.

But perhaps the litmus test of his many accomplishments lies in the tremendous and lasting impression he has made on colleagues and students alike. He has been described variously in the following ways:

• “He encourages risk-taking, creativity, and leaping outside your comfort zone. And he does this … because he believes in his students’ abilities.”
• “His refreshing, balanced approach provides students with the tools they need to be more entrepreneurial and to pursue their business ambitions with eyes wide open and a critical assessment of what success means to them.”
• “I don’t know where I would be without him…. Ryan represents the epitome of what Acadia stands for and my life will be forever impacted by him.”
• He is “the mentor I never knew I needed.”

Acadia Alumni Association President Matt Rios (’14) echoes the laudatory sentiments. “Dr. Ryan MacNeil’s innovative and warm, personal approach to learning has influenced students and alumni alike to be their very best selves, challenge norms, and explore creative opportunities in the entrepreneurial space.

“He is an engaging and faithful mentor, teacher and friend, investing his time and considerable energy to the betterment of those with whom he works. Everything he does is a deliberate and effective combination of life-learning, pedagogy and personal insight that has shaped the lives of countless Acadia students and members of our alumni community. It is an honour to acknowledge his tremendous contributions to Acadia, and I’m delighted to applaud him as this year’s recipient of the Acadia Alumni Association Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching.”

Pictured above: Dr. Ryan MacNeil receiving the Excellence in Teaching Award from Alumni Association President Matthew Rios ('14).