Sugar House resident is first participant in Westminster College teaching fellowship

Westminster College launched a new program in the fall aimed at improving the teaching skills of aspiring college professors. Sugar House resident Dr. Daniel Cruz was first in line for this opportunity.

The Westminster Teaching Fellows program is set up to give recent Ph.D. recipients the chance to teach students in a real classroom environment while receiving advice and helpful criticism from a faculty mentor.

“Really good teaching is not as easy as people think,” said Dean of Arts and Sciences Mary Jane Chase, who spearheads the program.

The two-year program started in the fall with Cruz as its pilot participant. As an English Composition and Literature Fellow, Cruz is currently teaching 12 credit hours (full time) of Introduction to Literature and British and American Literature classes. Throughout his first year in the program, Cruz’s classes will be observed at intervals by experienced faculty and videotaped so he can review his own work. He will also participate in regular faculty development and learning communities. During his second year, employment readiness exercises, such as mock interviews and presentations, will be added to his workload.

The idea behind the program is to not only to give participants an edge in a highly competitive job market by giving them actual experience to put on a resume, but also to help form their teaching methods in a way that keeps their students participating actively in their own education, not just sitting and listening all the time.

This participation-based learning style is not unique to Westminster, nor is it new to Cruz.

However, “Here at Westminster, there is so much institutional support for these strategies,” he said.

Cruz also appreciates the fact that because Westminster students are so used to active discussion and participation in class, he has not had to spend a lot of time getting them used to it. He has been able to just dive into teaching the material that he loves, he said.

Literature has always been a passion for Cruz, and a large influence in his development as a person, he added. Since he is not religious, many of his values have come from literature in the same way others find guidance in the Bible or Koran.

“Literature is something to be taken seriously because it has the power to change the world,” he said.

Cruz holds a Master’s degree in British and American Literature and a Doctorate in English from Northern Illinois University.

He is a great asset to Westminster not only because he is providing this constantly growing college with another fulltime professor for a while, but also because he is able to give students advice based on his recent experience with post-graduate education, Chase said.“He fits exactly what we’re looking for,” Chase said. “It’s a win-win for everyone.”

If all continues to go well, the Fellows program will continue indefinitely. Speech and Physics fellowships will be offered next year.