May 15, 2017

To the Hiring Committee:

After transferring from Columbus College of Art and Design and attending Bowling Green State
University, I had the opportunity of taking a General Studies Writing (GSW) 1120 course taught
by April Conway. From the first week of school, I found Dr. Conway particularly interesting
because of the way she ran her classroom. In my previous school, my writing professor, although
extremely qualified and passionate about her work, was not able to navigate me and my
classmates in a particular direction that made us feel part of the class and made us want to write
and explore writing. Dr. Conway was also particularly different from the rest of my professors
as she did not discuss her personal or professional problems, unlike many of my professors who
ended up creating awkward and at times very uncomfortable learning environments. Although I
am not required to take another GSW class for my major (Architecture), I will for sure take
another course with her when an opportunity arises because, like everyone, I have a deep urge to
be challenged and to be part of a larger community that this professor was and is able to create in
her classrooms.

One of the main strengths that Dr. Conway has clearly showed during our class time was her
ability to make a classroom environment that encouraged every student to be active in our group
projects by creating a comfortable and engaging setting where we were able to build a tiny
community of fellowship and academic curiosity. In such a setting, every one of us felt
motivated to participate during our time together, out of our shared respect towards this unique
professor who continuously showed tremendous respect and gratitude for my class. One of the
best examples of this would be during our Research Presentation Project in which each student
had been instructed to research a topic and then we had to present it to the class. Unlike most of
my professors who tend to be very dominant over their students in hopes of gaining control and
forced respect which often causes many of my classmates to either drop the class or switch to
another instructor who seemed more friendlier and less aggressive, Dr. Conway did something
different! Unlike most of my professors who tend to be quick to interrupt and to eagerly correct
their students (thus not giving us room to experiment with our development), Dr. Conway
showed tremendous confidence in us by allowing us to do most of the commenting about one
another's presentations and by keeping her remarks towards the end (which were often simple
and short as well). This was SO important as this type of teaching made us, the students, feel as
though this professor was more interested in seeing us grow as adults and becoming more
responsible and compassionate towards one another, by letting us practice our honesty, respect,
and courtesy, by letting us carry the discussions and the critiques. Despite Dr. Conway's
experience and maturity as a scholar, it was very clear to our class that this professor took us
seriously and expected her students to take ourselves seriously as well and to not underestimate
our knowledge and our experiences in our personal and academic lives. Our professor was able
to win the respect of our class by being humble and open to us which is so important because
teachers like her make students like me to sign up for writing classes again whether or not it is
required. She is able to make us want to come back and to ultimately make us fall in love with
writing.
This professor has also showed an exceptional amount of support outside of class in order to
make us feel heard and welcomed. As a student who was adopted from the Ukraine and who has
not seen his parents in 15 years, feeling supported by people is very important and crucial to my
being., I was chosen to present at the GSW Showcasean undergraduate research symposium
which I was encouraged to submit my research to by Dr. Conway. As I was walking down to the
presenting area, I was delighted to see my dear professor who upon seeing me, greeted me and
was very enthusiastic to see my presentation during the night. To have a professor ( and my role
model) to show up to my presentation despite missing her kid's dance class was overwhelming.
This professor in particular goes above and beyond her job to make sure that her students want to
come back to her class and want to engage with the academic community. After seeing this
professors work attitude towards her students, I am now am going to minor in Art Education.. I
have never received such support and dedication from any other professor who has made an
extra effort for her students to feel appreciated and worthwhile. Throughout the semester, this
professor has also made an extra effort to help me with my English grammar as I am still
learning this beautiful yet complex language. She was always very willing to give me necessary
feedback on my word choice and phrasing for my essays before I turned them in for the final
grade so that I may also have a better chance for developing strong papers. I still have much to
learn about this country including its language and it is truly is a blessing to have a professor
who not only comes to various events to support her students outside of work, but who also
shows patience and compassion to students like me to have an easier assimilation process into
this new civilization. I would highly recommend this professor if you are looking for an
extraordinary staff member who inspires their students and brings them back into writing classes.

To conclude this letter, I must again say that this unique individual is capable of engaging and
motivating her students outside of class and to create environments in which we the students are
able to appreciate academic writing on a personal level and to apply our projects and
assignments outside of our class time by encouraging us to treat writing as a way of self-
development. Dr. Conway is an artist, which I find to be quite rare in my academic experience.
This professor is able to make her students experience her lessons in real life circumstances and
is able to go beyond the course requirements. This professor showed us unbelievable patience
and was willing to become a student herself as she gave us room to teach her about our own
experiences in which we learned what it feels like to have education play out in real life. From
my own experience, I would highly recommend Dr. April Conway to any academic university.
This professor had such an influence on me that I am willing to spend my limited summer time
to write this letter in hopes that Dr. Conway may continue to inspire other students to appreciate
writing and to bring us students back into the writing community.

Roman Brown
rdbrown@bgsu.edu