May

In the fall of 2020, deep into the pandemic and remote teaching, the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) launched a new program to encourage students to do something simple: Write a “thank you” note to one of their teachers.

Dana D’Angelo’s first job out of college was working at what was then Andersen Consulting, where she stayed for two years before enrolling in Drexel University to earn an MBA. Her plan was to return to the consulting firm upon completing her masters', which she did, but something happened along the way that changed her professional journey.

When Christopher Laincz, PhD, and colleague Yoto Yotov, PhD, examined their principles of economics courses (ECON 201 and ECON 202), they concluded that students struggled with the math required for the intermediate level (ECON 301 and ECON 321), but that it would require a prohibitive number of additional math courses for them to gain command of the concepts.

On the first day of her courses teaching multilingual students in the First-Year Writing Program, Lisa DiMaio, EdD, hands out notecards for each student to share some background information on themselves including their native language and country, hobbies, and whether they have any food allergies.

During his junior year at Ridley High School in Delaware County, Dimitrios Papadopoulos, EdD, was terrified of his AP calculus teacher, Mrs. Crosby, who he described as “pretty intimidating.” Despite this youthful perception, Mrs. Crosby has since become a lifelong inspiration for Papadopoulos, his career as a math professor and the way he approaches teaching.

As an undergraduate student at The Savannah College of Art and Design, Joshua Weiss laid the foundation for his future career as a visual arts instructor. A painting major, Weiss was surrounded by young faculty who were helping to define SCAD’s direction and were eager to mentor new students. This early educational experience provided an intimate environment for students like him to learn and grow alongside their instructors.