The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs & Provost is honoring three SLCL faculty members for their service to campus and devotion to student learning.
The individuals chosen by the office each year have distinguished records as teachers, advisors, and mentors. They are recognized for excellence by both their peers and their students.
Descriptions of the awards and the recipients within SLCL follow:
Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
This award recognizes sustained excellence in and innovative approaches to undergraduate teaching and contributions beyond classroom instruction that have an overall positive impact on undergraduate student learning.
Raquel Castro Goebel is an instructor in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese and the director of the Portuguese language program. She is a lawyer in her native Brazil, but in the United States she found her passion for teaching her language and culture to others. For the past ten years, she has been delivering programs that provide students with the foreign language skills and cross-cultural awareness they need to live and work abroad and communicate effectively. Goebel is praised for her willingness to learn new things, making her an enthusiastic and caring instructor who fosters a dynamic class environment.
Daniel Leon is a professor in the Department of Classics. Specializing in Greek and Roman historical narrative, Leon possesses a unique ability to make classes engaging, and his students have attested to that skill in his student evaluations. Leon has also served the department by designing new courses and working to develop a study abroad program in Athens, Greece. Above all, his caring personality and commitment to personal decency have resonated with students. He is known for bringing his teaching subjects to life with hands-on activities and combining scholarly brilliance with careful preparation and attentiveness.
Campus Award for Excellence in Online & Distance Teaching
This award honors excellence and innovation in online and/or distance teaching; contributions to student learning through innovative uses of technology; creativity in course development and instruction; and for having had a positive influence on the quality, extent, and development of a department’s online/distance program.
Florencia Henshaw is the director of advanced Spanish in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese and the interim co-director of the Foreign Language Teacher Education program. Dr. Henshaw played a pivotal role in the development and implementation of most of the online courses in her department, managing a quick transition to remote learning during the pandemic while maintaining high quality standards of education. Dr. Henshaw’s work and expertise in the field of technology-enhanced language instruction has been recognized nationally and internationally through a number of awards, including the ACTFL/IALLT Postsecondary Award for Excellence in World Language Instruction Using Technology and the ACTFL/CALICO Award for Excellence in Online Language Teaching.
Recipients will be recognized at an awards ceremony and reception in April.
Dania De La Hoya Rojas