Fellow faculty members, students and President Dave Wolk gathered in the Herrick Auditorium joined by Professor of History, Geography, Economic and Political Science, Dr. Trish Van der Spuy, as she presented on her experiences at Castleton during her Vermont State College Faculty Fellow celebration on Wednesday.
Professor Van der Spuy was recently named the VSC Faculty Fellow, an award given each semester by the Vermont State College Board of Trustees. The Fellowship honors tenured faculty who show outstanding accomplishments in teaching and learning.
Before the presentation President Wolk spoke on behalf of her devoted work ethic and many accomplishments as a professor and faculty member at Castleton.
“When I think of her, I think of someone who is elegant, intelligent and conscientious,” said Wolk of Van der Spuy. “She embodies what we hope for in all of our educators.”
Also eager to speak of Van der Spuy’s outstanding abilities was former English Professor John Gillen.
He raved to those in attendance of her years of dedication and involvement in nearly every group and project on campus.
“She has so much energy,” Gillen kept repeating, but to him one of her strengths rises above all others. “Her most impressive skill is her teaching. Her lectures are so well structured and her students just love it.”
Van der Spuy’s presentation, “Voices of My Education: Living, Learning and Teaching from the Wrong Side of History,” reflected on the various ways her journey from Southern Rhodesia, a British colony in South Central Africa, to Castleton has transformed her scholarship and teaching, the educational significance of being South African, and the value of teaching from a perspective of a white woman born on the wrong side of history.
“By being different and celebrating being different I encourage my students to have their own identity,” Van der Spuy said with confidence.