Teaching Awards

Nominated, Contingent Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching
2021-2022
Siena College School of Liberal Arts (SoLA)

Nominated, Contingent Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching
2020-2021
Siena College School of Liberal Arts (SoLA)

Excellence in Teaching Award, Honorable Mention 2017-2018
Purdue University Department of English

Quintilian Award Fall 2017, Awarded to TAs with top 10% of course evaluations
Purdue University Department of English

Quintilian Award Fall 2016, Awarded to TAs with top 10% of course evaluations
Purdue University Department of English

Teaching Academy Graduate Teaching Award 2016,
Purdue University Teaching Academy, Purdue Center for Instructional Excellence

Excellence in Teaching Award 2014-2015,
Purdue University Department of English

Student Reflections

Demonstrating teaching excellence is, of course, a challenge. In addition to Student Course Evaluations, one of the main criteria I use for evaluating my effectiveness in the classroom is based on the response of my students. I challenge them to find the value in writing, regardless of their major.

With that in mind, I have compiled a list of “8 Amazing Comments My Students Have Made About My Writing Class” in in-class reflection assignments and journal entries over the past few years. These comments speak to the value my students have found in my Introductory Composition (ICaP) Class at Purdue.

I was particularly struck by one student’s response to Anne Lamott’s famous essay “Shitty First Drafts,” which, in addition to having a titillating title, exposes the work and anguish behind good writing. This student had an epiphany about how drafting worked not only in writing but also in coding, and he came to see the two as mutually informative composition practices.

**Note: Comments in the infographic, as noted above, are from in-class reflection and journal assignments, not final course evaluations, and are used with student permission.