Teacher of the Year Awards

AMM Teacher of the Year Award

2017-2018 Professor Ann-Kristin Erdmann

2017-2018 recipient Ann-Kristin Erdmann

Her class was really enlightening and a great learning experience, and was really nice, understanding, and you could tell she cared about her students' progress in the class.  She has come so far in adapting herself to AMM life at Cal Poly and has made quite an impact on me as a student. She is so approachable and willing to help students. She always shares her personal stories and opinions during class, which puts us as students at ease.

She is very organized and knowledgeable on new trends and news.  She is very patient with students and provides lots of guidance and help. She brings her students a wide variety of learning activities and encourages us to step out of our comfort zone and speak our opinions.

She brings fun activities and extremely educational and hands-on group projects (the AMM 499 brand creation project in particular) to the classroom. I appreciate her happiness and enthusiasm she brings to all classes.

She is knowledgeable on the subjects she teaches and very understanding. She is passionate and is extremely informative about marketing, promotion and brand development. She is dedicated, resourceful, helpful and motivating. Her teaching style engages the whole classroom.

Selected comments from the nominating process for Teacher of the Year

(faculty are in alphabetical order)

“All of the AMM professors that taught me this year are knowledgeable.  Selection of one is very challenging.  One must consider their knowledge of the subject matter; their curriculum design; their academic standards; their enthusiasm and caring; their love for learning; their classroom management; and the most important of all to me is the desire to make a difference in their students.”

Dr. Che

• He is always positive and has great energy in the classroom to keep students motivated. 
• He is always pushing his students to try their best. He works hard to make his classes challenging and exciting. He is always there for his students.  He cares a lot about his students and wants to give them the opportunity to learn as much as possible. 

Dr. Dabas

• She is a great math teacher and truly cares about her students. She is doing a great job in preparing us for buyer positions.
• She has challenged me like no other teacher has before which has really forced me and helped me to learn a lot more in her class.
• She goes the extra mile for me when I ask her for help and is a wealth of knowledge. 

Prof. Dwyer

• She is very knowledgeable in her field. Provided a lot of personal experience and related world issues with what’s relevant to our industry.
• I really like her teaching style and she makes learning interesting! 

Prof. Faraone

• She is so passionate about the industry. She has so much knowledge from past experiences and I love that she incorporates it into her teaching.
• She's just awesome and fun!! Doesn't make things boring and she's a really nice lady who wants to help her students learn more and understand! 

Dr. Heimler

• He sets such high expectations for his students and challenges us to meet them.
• His class provided so many insights into careers opportunities in the industry and the skills each requires.  It really helped to prepare me professionally.

Prof. Johnson

• She is very caring and patient with her students and is always willing to help the students understand.
• I really enjoyed her class as she takes her time to explain the steps to each individual. 

Dr. Lyu

• She worked so hard both inside and outside of class to help students master the material.
• Her technical knowledge of apparel design and willingness to help students learn makes her a great addition to the faculty.

Prof. Matus

• She is super enthusiastic, no matter what she is teaching, which always gets students involved and participating.
• She brings great energy into the classroom. Inside and outside class, Prof. Matus is really helpful and cares that we succeed at our assigned tasks.
• Prof. Matus allowed me to be creative with my projects. When you have a Prof. that allows you to express your creativity it doesn't feel like a class! 

Prof. Parise

• She always has an interesting story or piece of advice to give her class, and she has given me so much insight into the industry as well as life. 
• She always has a smile and is really committed to help her students learn. Her personality really makes it easy to enjoy the class. 
• She worked so hard to make this challenging course a success and was always there to help and guide us.

Dr. Senanayake

• He is a really active Prof. that goes the extra mile to make sure his students understand the material in class and how they could apply it to the workplace.
• He provides great examples of real world scenarios and gives us a better perspective on the fashion industry. 
• His lectures are always engaging because he often sets in class discussions and really wants his students to learn the topics. He's always organized and utilizes class time effectively.

Prof. Tetschner

• I like how she emphasizes the importance of sustainability and technology for the future of the fashion industry.
• She challenges her students and sets high expectations. She encourages creativity and technical excellence. 
• She is a joy to talk to and is passionate about her work.

Dr. Tucker

• She has been one of my favorites and has taught me so much valuable information that I will use in my career. 
• She goes above and beyond when it comes to giving students real-world fashion experiences and field trips.  

Prof. Young

• She is a great communicator.  She not only provides so much knowledge of textiles but she has a way to make all of the information learned in class fun and memorable.  She transformed textiles from being intimidating to one of my favorite aspects of the AMM experience.
• I chose to nominate Prof. Young because of her organization skills, her interest in the subjects she is teaching, and her dedication to helping us achieve as students