Member Spotlight: Colleen van Lent

Member Spotlight

Nov 27

Written By LEO Communications Committee

COLLEEN VAN LENT

Ann Arbor, School of Information

Teaching Professor and Lecturer IV

Lecturer Excellence in Inclusive Teaching Award

What is your area of specialty?

Introductory Programming and Accessible Web Design

What are you proud of as a lecturer?

I am proud of my students. Learning to program is really challenging for many people and it requires a lot of tenacity and belief in your abilities to improve. I enjoy being there to see them make breakthroughs. Thanks to their energy, I have been honored to receive the UM Lecturer in Inclusive Teaching (LEIT) Award, and recognition as an Honored Instructor by UM Housing.

What might others not know about you?

When I was a maid at the Chautauqua Institute in the 1990s, I was able to meet Bob Dole and Peter (from Peter, Paul, and Mary), as well as listen to one of the final 10,000 Maniacs concerts with Natalie Merchant.

What is something that you are proud of outside your role as a lecturer?

I am proud of myself for finishing a mini-triathalon a few years back. Even though the race was in May - it snowed!!!