The SPPO Associated Faculty Teaching Award Committee (Dr. Holly Nibert, Dr. Scott Schwenter, and Ms. Megan Lobert) is please to announce that Manuela Olaru and Caroline Shipley have won the 2020-2021 SPPO Associated Faculty Award for Excellence in Second Language Teaching & Learning. This award recognizes an exceptional commitment to implementing nationally established best practices and/or implementing innovative practices in the field of second-language teaching. It likewise credits ongoing efforts to actively participate in professional development opportunities in fields related to teaching and learning. Finally, it acknowledges exemplary citizenship and participation in the life and teaching mission of the SPPO Language Program (LP) and overall department. 

Manuela has exemplified these qualities in numerous ways since joining the LP team in AU16.  Over this past academic year, Manuela taught across the curriculum (1102, 1103 and 2202) and in different modalities. In her award application, Manuela writes, “I aim to create a learner-centered classroom environment which allows students to take control and assume an active role in their learning. I ask my students to set learning goals for themselves, and to share these with me so that I may help them achieve them.”  Students recognize Manuela’s investment in their education and have responded very positively to her approach and methods.  Her teaching evaluations are consistently strong with students lauding her for being “present,” “kind,” “caring,” “understanding,” “helpful,” “engaging,” and “knowledgeable.”  In addition, Manuela embraced fully online second language (L2) instruction early on in its evolution within our program, and she continually strives to deepen her pedagogical practice through workshops offered by ODEE, UITL, and the SPPO LP, as well as through online opportunities available at other universities nationwide.  Finally, she is a wonderful colleague and citizen of SPPO –among other things, by volunteering to sub for someone in need or on short-term leave.  

Caroline has exemplified these qualities by focusing keenly on pedagogical practice after successfully completing her Ph.D. in SPPO. In AU20, Caroline taught 4 hybrid (HY) sections, one of SPAN 1102 and 3 of SPAN 1155. In addition to teaching 3 HY sections of SPAN 1103 in SP21, Caroline taught SPAN 4556 (Modern Latin American Literature), which was her first experience designing and teaching a 4000-level course. She writes in her award application that this AY, she has focused on “translating various cultural, economic, and social realities of people living throughout Latin America to my students in ways that are relatable and allows the students to better understand these realities on affective and emotional levels. … To achieve these pedagogical practices, I am constantly bringing in news stories, headlines, Tweets, audiovisual materials (such as music video clips), and so on, to keep building on themes that we have been developing throughout the semester…”  Caroline cites involvement in workshops such as SPPO’s Anti-Racist Pedagogy Workshop as important to refining her teaching practice. She also was an active contributor to the LP’s “Live Lines” throughout the 2020-21 AY. 

The award carries a one-time honorarium of $500 (for each awardee) as well as public recognition on the SPPO departmental website and at our Annual Graduation and Awards Ceremony, which this year will take place on Saturday, May 8, 2021. 

Please join us in celebrating Manuela’s and Caroline's wonderful contributions to our department.