Honors program recognizes faculty, staff excellence

April 23rd 2014 Simon Kuran
Awards
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The College of Letters & Science Honors Program will recognize four faculty and two academic staff members for their outstanding contributions as teachers and mentors to honors students with this year's Distinguished Honors Faculty Awards.

Students nominate faculty and staff members who have made major impacts on their experiences at UW-Madison, and the award recipients are selected by the Faculty Honors Committee.

This year's recipients, who will receive their awards at a reception at Washburn Observatory on April 30, are:

Danielle Benden - Senior Academic Curator, Department of Anthropology
Nominated by Tasia Williams (x'15) and Danielle Zwang (x'14)

"Danielle Benden creates opportunities to learn and obtain real world experience in collections management and curation. Without her, I would not have been awarded the many opportunities I have received, including jobs, internships and graduate school." — Zwang

"Every time I have a small breakthrough on my project, Danielle Benden shares in my delight, and when I hit a dead end, she helps me to reshape my project. She has exposed me to the world of museums and a variety of occupations, including field trips that gave me the opportunity to talk with professionals in archaeological curation. Danielle has nurtured my love of archaeology by being so incredibly supportive of my goals." — Williams

David Danaher - Professor, Department of Slavic Languages and Literature
Nominated by Brian Ferrer (x'17)

"It is apparent every time I come to class that Professor Danaher is passionate about Slavic culture and language. One of my favorite lessons is the idea that children learn the directional terms top, bottom, front, and back long before they learn left and right. Why? How? And what could be the probable cause of this phenomenon? As we discussed topics like this further, I found that they often connected with science disciplines and other majors, further deepening my interest in the class." — Ferrer

Raymond Deneckere - Professor, Department of Economics
Nominated by Yaoyuan Liu (x'17)

"Professor Deneckere encouraged me to read beyond the assigned readings for the course and even directed me toward specific papers and books. He is a professor who truly cares about students." — Liu

Ralph Grunewald - Associate Faculty Associate, Department of Comparative Literature and Folklore and Legal Studies Program
Nominated by Alexandra Sabatini (x'14)

"Professor Grunewald is approachable, supportive, and encouraging. He constantly pushes me to be the best student I can be. He leaves his students with the impression that he truly believes in them and their work. He will accept nothing less than 100 percent from you, and, in return, he gives you 150 percent." — Sabatini

Maryellen MacDonald - Professor, Department of Psychology
Nominated by Qihong Lu (x'16)

"Professor MacDonald is very kind, encouraging, and knowledgeable. She understands how to present the knowledge in a way that easy to comprehend for people who have no background on her field, which makes her class very enjoyable for every student. I looked forward to going to her lectures every day. Overall, I learned not only knowledge and facts, but also how to reason in psychology in general." — Lu

Tiziana Serafini - Professor, Department of French and Italian
Nominated by Thomas Gierok (x'17)

"Professor Serafini holds us to high standards, but in a way that is engaging. Her class was my first of the day and everyday, Professor Serafini lit up the room with her excitement to teach and greet all of us. It gave the class a very uplifting feel." — Gierok