Samantha Gillen Awarded Sandy Beaver Excellence in Teaching

Dr. Samantha Gillen, Lecturer of Italian, is a recipient of a 2025 Sandy Beaver Excellence in Teaching Award. The Sandy Beaver awards annually honor outstanding faculty in the Franklin College who have shown a sustained commitment to high-quality instruction.  Since joining the Romance Languages faculty in 2022, Samantha has designed and taught the new, online asynchronous course ITAL 2500e, participated in the pilot Experiential Learning Connect Abroad programs (Italy 2024 and Greece 2025), and taught Italian language at the UGA Cortona campus in Summer 2024.

Dr. Concettina Pizzuti, Italian Language Supervisor and Senior Lecturer, provided a letter of recommendation that spoke to Samantha’s teaching. Dr. Pizzuti notes that Samantha takes her teaching very seriously and strives for innovation and creativity. Her classes are interactive and communicative. Samantha also shows a keen interest in the wellbeing of her students and her demeanor is always warm and welcoming. Dr. Pizzuti adds that the students clearly recognize Samantha’s genuine interest in their success and wellbeing and react by fully participating in class and rewarding their instructor with exceptionally positive comments on her performance and on the effectiveness of her lesson plans. 

The Department of Romance Languages warmly congratulates Samantha on this well-deserved recognition. She follows other Sandy Beaver recipients from Romance Languages, including Nora Benedict (2024) and Sharina Maillo-Pozo (2021).