Reflective letters

#1

Marlen,

This class has been a great experience for me so far.  I am really glad that you  talked me in to signing up for it this semester, and that we managed to get me a seat.  Adding more work to an already stressful semester was a tough choice for me, but after working with and getting to know you over the summer, the opportunity to take a class from you and get to research anything that i wanted for an entire semester was too tempting to pass up just for fear of time crunch.

I am concerned with my time commitments this semester.  Fall of senior year is a big and busy time for me, and there is quite a bit on my plate.  I am preparing for the GREs on October 20th, as well as working on research for both your class and for the psychology honors program.  Now is also the time for me to be working on submitting graduate school applications, and all of this is without looking at the rest of my academic load including extracirriculars and my job.  In short, I have resolved to sleep when i’m dead.

That said, this class is one of my favorites as an undergraduate so far.  Spending an entire semester researching oral sex as an academic class is like a dream come true for me.  Doing this work now also meshes well with my academic goals and direction, and should prove to be a valuable experience.  I appreciate the freedom that you are giving us in directing our own projects, and your structuring of assignments that allows us to recycle our former assignments in to the main body of our research is a teaching idea that I wish more professors would embrace.  I have certainly not felt that your class has a light workload, but i appreciate the fact that you make sure that your students benefit from all of the work you expect, and avoid the busywork model that so many of us have grown to loathe.

thanks for an exciting class Marlen.  if all goes well with my research, I hope to travel to some conferences with you this year!

-Mark

2:

Dear Marlen,

You promised me a challenging class, and you delivered. I have felt pushed as a student in your course this semester, this coming from an honors student who has taken some of the most challenging courses that IUP offers to undergraduate students. Pushed, yes, but in an entirely positive way. Most classes let a student like me skate on through with an A, which is what I have learned to do as a student. Show up to lecture, make a good impression, spend an occasional half hour on a paper, get an A. You demanded more from me as an instructor.

In your class this semester, I got to devote all of my time to a research topic that I am passionate about. You encouraged and guided me, providing a knowledge framework about research writing that guided me step by step through the writing process from the early idea stages to now, when I am looking at a sixteen page document that I really take pride in.

By being in your class I have also had opportunities as a student that I would never have seen otherwise. I got to take the research that I did as an undergraduate on oral sex, a topic that really interests me, and fly with you to my dream conference in Mexico. This was my first time flying, my first time out of the country, my first time in Mexico, my first academic conference, my first time presenting my own original research, and my first trip to the World Congress for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. Many firsts, but almost certainly no lasts. You have helped me to lay the foundation for my future success in academia by not allowing me to skate through, by encouraging me to work and be the best and strongest student possible.

No other instructor has done this in the way that you have for me as a student. Thanks to you, I have had an experience that most students will never get to have. It has given me confidence, gotten me excited about my academic future, and helped to pave the way for graduate studies. This course was everything that I could have wanted from any undergraduate class, and I only wish that other students could be as lucky as I have been to find a mentor like you. -Mark