Dr. Erika Stevens

It is an honor to be nominated for the SCOLT Educator of Excellence Award. SCOLT has held a special place in my heart and I have been an active sponsor since I joined in 2015 and presented for the first time at the 2016 conference. I showed up without knowing anyone, but was welcomed and made new friends and connections that I treasure to this day. To be nominated for this award in recognition of my leadership in world language associations and program development including mentoring of sister institutions, as well as for my teaching is an honor. My true passion is in teaching where I try my best to expand the knowledge, skills, and talents of my students as they pursue their study of Spanish. To meet student needs, I have created communicative, asynchronous web classes as well as hybrid and livestream classes. It is only by focusing on the needs and desires of my students that I have had the further opportunities to serve the wider student population by sharing my skills and passion with other institutions, organizations, and instructors. The creation of the Spanish Certificate Program, the first community college level academic certificate program in Tennessee, came from this desire to meet the needs of my students who wanted to be able to pursue the study of Spanish while completing other degrees but could not because of financial aid restrictions. I continue to work hard to improve World Language education at WSCC and beyond.