Dr. Lauren Miller Awarded 2024 Teaching Professionals Award for Excellence in Teaching

By Erin Marlow, Communications Specialist in the Office of the Dean of the College

Dr. Lauren Miller, Assistant Teaching Professor of Spanish, begins each new class with a question: “Who is your favorite celebrity?” she asks, hoping to learn about her students’ interests, hobbies, or tastes in music. More than an exercise in Spanish vocabulary or sentence structure, the phrase serves as a poignant example of Dr. Miller’s student-centered approach. “I try to relate the class to my students’ lives as much as possible. I try to get to know them,” Dr. Miller said. 

When named the recipient of the 2024 Teaching Professionals Award for Excellence in Teaching, Dr. Miller admitted that the award came as a surprise. “My relationship with my students has been really rewarding to me, and it means a lot that the University recognizes that,” said Dr. Miller. This prestigious award, established in 2020, honors a Wake Forest College Teaching Professional faculty member at any stage of their career.  

Since starting her position in the Department of Spanish at Wake Forest in 2017, Dr. Miller has taught four of the department’s six language sequence courses in addition to a required course for Spanish majors and minors, a linguistics course, a language pedagogy course, and a First Year Seminar. In each of her courses, Dr. Miller demonstrates an outstanding commitment to her students and has proven to be an integral part of the department.

Dr. Miller is appreciated and admired by her students, as evidenced by her nearly perfect course evaluations. As many of the courses Dr. Miller teaches are a part of the basic language requirement on campus, these ratings are a testament to Dr. Miller’s ability to engage her students in the course material. 

Dr. Miller’s pedagogical approaches stand out as they contribute to the classroom’s comfortable learning environment. Dr. Miller scaffolds student assignments and activities so that students have a  space to practice the language before jumping into exams. Notably, Dr. Miller maximizes students’ learning and engagement by increasing the number of oral exams from 2 to 3. The new oral exam requires students to speak for the entire 50-minute class while Dr. Miller circulates around the room in an attempt to lower the pressure of exam time and emphasize the importance of communication over perfection. “I know they can do it,” Dr. Miller says with her characteristic patience and kindness. “[Students] feel like they really accomplished something that they didn’t think they were able to do.”

Dr. Miller’s own research in the field of Language Acquisition Studies and passion for community-based research continues to be a driving force in her teaching career. Blending humor, compassion, and a commitment to Spanish education, Dr. Miller offers invaluable contributions to student learning and faculty development. 

Congratulations, Dr. Miller, on being the 2024 winner of the Teaching Professionals Award for Excellence in Teaching.