UMass Amherst: Susan Ware Receives Outstanding Teaching Award from Commonwealth Honors College

Susan Ware, senior lecturer, has been awarded the Commonwealth Honors College (CHC) College Outstanding Teaching Award for the 2023-24 academic year.

Each year, the college gives the award to a faculty member who demonstrates excellence and creativity in teaching, a positive impact on their students and a mastery of their subject. Ware, who teaches the honors signature course Ideas That Change the World, is known for her work and dedication to helping students find the “spark and depth” during their education that she herself had discovered through her own experiences through her liberal arts education.

She also credits her education to making her a more free and thoughtful human being by its completion, and she says that she hopes every student of hers can walk away from her classes saying the same and have cultivated a healthy, developed respect for complexity and facts.

“In a thumbs-up, thumbs-down culture, I hope my students will face the future with the courage to question half-truths,” Ware says.

“Professor Ware is committed to expanding her students’ understanding of the world and this has a positive impact on students and their communities, which I deeply appreciate,” says CHC Dean Mari Castañeda.

“I felt absolutely thrilled when I learned I’d gotten the award,” Ware adds.

The College Outstanding Teaching Award (COTA) is a program co-administered by the UMass Center for Teaching and Learning. Presented annually each spring semester, each award consists of a $1,000 prize and a commemorative plaque. All staff and faculty are eligible for the award and are nominated by their respective colleges each year.