“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires,” said William A. Ward, one of America’s most quoted writers.

National Teacher Appreciation Day was recognized on May 3, 2016, with National Teacher Appreciation week held May 1-7.

Although National Teacher Appreciation Week has come to a close, students at Sacramento State end the semester sharing their gratitude for professors who inspire, encourage and leave a lasting impression.

Cheyann Best, an undeclared freshman, said Mandy Proctor, a professor for English 10 and 11 at Sac State, stands out from other professors because she is caring and helpful.

“She stands out among my other professors because she is very caring,” Best said. “If someone has a bad grade in class, she’ll help do whatever she can to help a person raise it. She told the class that at the end of the year, since it is a year-long class, that she will cry when we leave because we connected on a personal level. She is very charismatic, and I feel like she is more caring than other professors because she acts like she’s our friend and not just a professor who is out to give us a bad grade.”

Maddie Champagne, a senior majoring in economics, said in the fall of 2015 she encountered economics professor Michael Dowell, her first experience with a professor who inspires her.

At the end of last semester, Dowell encouraged Champagne to take on the role of being president of the Student Economics Association.

“He thought I would be a good fit for that role,” Champagne said, “and I had never thought about doing anything like that before. I did it and I’ve been in the role of president for this club for the past year, and it’s been one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. That never would have happened without his encouragement. It’s given me good opportunities to practice public speaking and working with the group being a leader, building consensus when we have to plan events or make decisions, and it’s really enhanced my leadership skills.”

Kyle Kish, a junior majoring in economics, said that Kristin Van Gaasbeck, who teaches macroeconomics, stands out among other professors because her teaching style fits with his learning style.

Kish said Van Gaasbeck is well-organized, lectures on relevant content and the classroom discussions are engaging. With a topic such as economics, it is easy to get too caught up in theory, but Kish said Van Gaasbeck does a good job of making sure that her students really apply themselves, and that readings are relevant and correlate well with real-world topics.

“I really like her because her teaching style fits with my learning style really well,” Kish said. “The way that she does her lectures, she writes everything out and it’s structured exactly the way I like it and she’s really smart. She’s the smartest professor I’ve ever seen on campus, and she doesn’t make class boring. She tends to make lectures pretty light, not too serious, but she always gets a lot of content covered, too. She’s really flexible and if I ever need her, I can email her and she usually responds really fast.”