Christelle Sabatier Recognized by the College of Arts and Sciences
Dr. David E. Logothetti Teaching Award
In recognition for having established among colleagues and students a well-deserved reputation for an energetic, engaging, and effective teaching style, and having demonstrated the ability to motivate other teachers and learners.
Christelle inspires us to do better and be better for our students. She sets the standard for teaching effectiveness. As one colleague said, “Christelle's passion for teaching and care for students is amazing. Christelle inspires me, and I think everyone around her, to be a better teacher.”
Christelle’s teaching practices are always well-informed. Do you want to know the latest research on compassion, inclusiveness, rigor, anti-racist teaching, alternative grading and equity, and how to put all of that into practice in big classes in STEM, online, hybrid and during COVID? Do the research. It's a lot. Or ask Christelle. She has read the work and she is putting it into practice. She is thinking hard about our students, always, it seems—about what they have gone through, what they need, where they are today, now, and about how we can best do what we promise to do in a Santa Clara education. Plus, she is deeply kind and generous to colleagues.
Christelle led the way toward a complete revision of the Biology intro series a few years ago. She coordinated the original year-long ACUE teacher training program that helped transform the teaching practices of 60 participating faculty. She was the lead facilitator of the summer program in 2020 that helped us do our best in the impossible pivot to online teaching and learning. She has led book groups, new Faculty Cohorts, Faculty Learning Communities, workshops, CAFEs, and more.
One of her colleagues writes: “It has been our informal meetings where she has been my greatest inspiration. Over multiple conversations she has helped me think more broadly about student challenges and how to be a more compassionate educator. Her constant effort to meet students where they are is something that I will continue to work towards. Every conversation with her brings up new ideas and inspires new actions.”
For her sustained dedication to improving teaching in the College and the entire University community, Christelle Sabatier is an exceptionally deserving recipient of the Logothetti Award.