…just incase you are unaccustomed to receiving thank you letters from students for hiring good professors…

I took proactive actions to advocate one of my most respected professors in CSULA, one of which was a letter to the Dean.

Nov 30, 2005

California State University, Los Angeles

College of Health and Human Services

Re: Dr. Suling Cheng

Dear Dr. Marlene Zepeda,

Hello, my name is Jessie Chen, a student of Dr. Cheng’s CHDV 140 this quarter.  I write this letter to you as a student representing Dr. Cheng’s class. 

I’ll get right to the point: I would like to thank you for appointing Dr. Cheng to teach this class.  She is a superb teacher.  In fact, if I had the power/authority, I would give her a “perfect teacher award.”  Of all the professors I had so far, she is the only professor who has the aptitude to incorporate the state-of-the-art pedagogy into her lectures—the power point presentations and video clips.  As a student, I deeply sense its effectiveness—i.e., video clips make scholarly concepts come alive and accessible, while power point outlines highlight and organize focal points of the discussions into a holistic perspective. 

In sum, she has strategically and ingeniously structured her class in three major ways: (1) her daily activities and weekly quizzes minimize students’ non-attendance, since in order to accumulate these points, the students must be present; (2) her aforementioned high-tech visual aids increase students’ comprehension of and engagement into the discourse being discussed; and (3) her website in which she posts students’ accumulated points invariably motivates students’ academic excellence in terms of grade.  In addition, other aspects of her class—such as her eloquence, kindness, humor, and other efforts, like trying to connect points of discussions to current, real life situations—collectively make her a “perfect professor,” and thus her class, a priceless academic asset to the students.  It even has the power to convert a student who was initially dismally-interested in the course into a devotee of it, at least until the spell wears off (this is me). 

I will briefly explain why I have decided to write this letter, just incase you are unaccustomed to receiving thank you letters from students for hiring good professors: My current situation with an awful professor this quarter for my other class (Eng 410) has sensitized otherwise a very passive me into a critical student who now demotes professor’s negligence (Several students and I have reported this particular professor to the department) and promotes his/her excellence.  In other words, just as most of us would report a negligent professor, I felt that a good professor should be reported to the department as well for his/her ingenuity and distinction.  Thus, although I am not a CHDV major, I am informing and appreciating you for an excellent, dedicated teacher in your department. 

Thank you very much for you time.

Respectfully,

Jessie Chen (writerjc2006@yahoo.com)