Kovac was one of three national winners in the rigor category of the Cisco Networking Academy Program's recognition program. The category recognizes instructors who encourage academic rigor and student success.

"I was given an award for being tough," he said and laughed. "When you think about school, who are the teachers you remember the most? The tough ones."

The competition was open to about 10,000 U.S. and Canadian instructors in the Cisco academy, a global program that provides in-depth information technology and technical networking training for students, educators and professionals. Winners were announced at the organization's national convention June 18 in Austin, Texas.

Kovac prefers to teach students by "giving them stretching exercises," he said. "By that I mean the students find answers for themselves. I will put them in the ballpark by showing them how to find the information, but they find it for themselves. I think students learn much more that way."