Bacca Fellow Testimonials
| "My colleagues gave me the space, time, and tools to explore and be inventive with new ways of teaching and learning. I became the student, pressing beyond my comfort level to grow in a community of supportive colleagues."-Bacca Fellow 24-25, Jenifer Hamil-Luker | "Designing a new course is always exciting and energizing. And it is also labor-intensive and anxiety producing. Being part of the Bacca Fellowship and having the other fellows “in my corner” as I went into teaching Performing Brazil for the first time this fall made all the difference." -Bacca Fellow 24-25, Katya Wesolowski |
| "The Bacca Fellowship transformed my vision for an arts-based makerspace from a simple request for space into a comprehensive pedagogical framework."- Bacca Fellow 24-25, Rhiannon Scharnhorst | "My fellow fellows spent time every month talking about one of my favorite things in the world—teaching. It was more than a time to debrief, though. It was a time to grow, share, and engage with other pedagogues who cared about their teaching. From each of them, I will take something forward to my future teaching environments—to keep it playful, to be mindful of student’s mental health, to reach out for help when I need it."- Bacca Fellow 24-25, Hannah Taylor |
| "The Bacca Fellowship (truly, a cohort of friendly scholars) was a fantastic opportunity that helped shape my ideas, quite oblique early on, into a rewarding project."-Bacca Fellow 23-24, Lisa Merschel | "The fellowship provided a friendly and safe space to engage in discussion with others with different teaching experiences and perspectives. It was also a space for quiet reflection."-Bacca Fellow 23-24, Della Chambless |
| "What I enjoyed most about the monthly meetings with the wonderful Nan Mulleneaux and the other fellows was the partly structured, partly free time we enjoyed, in a space that felt conducive to sharing concerns and questions, experimenting with ideas, picking people’s brains, and above all marveling at the creative pedagogical possibilities that emerge from the encounter among minds attuned to one another but also intently focused on their specific pedagogical-enhancement project."-Bacca Fellow 23-24, Corina Stan | "The fellowship and support of this past year’s BACCA cohort, especially leader-extraordinaire Nan Mullenneaux, made such a difference in the development of this language portfolio project. The thoughtful questions raised in this space, the opportunity to discuss with other instructors who share a passion for helping students grow in their engagement with the world around them, and the specific feedback on proposed project guidelines all helped me to refine my project vision."-Bacca Fellow 23-24, Sarah Baker |
Playful Pedagogy Fellow Testimonials
| "Working with an established cohort to explore the possibilities that improv techniques could bring to our pedagogy was a very enriching experience, and Nan’s guidance and leadership through this process was invaluable—her knowledge and experience, but also her warmth and support and creativity throughout."- Playful Pedagogy Fellow '24, Laura Florand | “Under Nan’s skilled guidance, and because I trust her and her vision, I began to believe that I could ask my students to try things out, to approach collaboration, creation, and communication as a series of experiments, which when all is said and done, is how we learn, and especially how we learn languages.”- Playful Pedagogy Fellow '24, Melissa Simmermeyer |
| "I especially appreciate Nan—our wonderful and passionate leader—who always brought energy and thoughtful preparation to each meeting. She inspired me to see that language teaching can be both “serious” and “fun” at the same time."-Playful Pedagogy Fellow 24-25, Ya-Chuan Chou | "The playful pedagogy workshop reminded me that learning is fun and dynamic and that there are many ways to reach our learning outcomes. I found myself incorporating playful pedagogy tactics frequently in my Spanish classes."- Playful Pedagogy Fellow 24-25, Rebecca Ewing |