Student Assessment-Comments and Emails

ENG 1101-English Composition I

• Thank you, Professor. You inspire us to be better writers and Read Like a Writer. You are hands down the best Professor I’ve ever had, and it is truly a pleasure to be a part of your class. Thank you for making writing so much fun!
• Professor Westengard is an amazing instructor. She has demonstrated that she is determined to help each and every one of her students pass this semester. She thoroughly goes over the work to make sure it is clearly understood and takes her time to help us if we are in need of help. Would definitely recommend her to other fellow students.
• She’s wonderful. She’s a rare exception of keeping your students engage
• Amazing professor and taught the class very well
• Overall a great and effective professor.
• Best Professor I’ve ever had the pleasure of being in class for.
• Nice professor, very respectful
• Professor Laura Westengard always had time for her students when they needed her attention or help. When out of class, I was able to reach her easily and she fast was to respond back. I thank her for the time and patience she was able to give during my time in her class.
• Great professor, very informative with her teachings and feedback, also very supportive to her students.
• she cares about her student and is very understanding
• Thank You for one of the most enjoyable English classes I’ve taken.
• For the first time writing essays and bibliographies didn’t seem as drab and boring like my other English classes.
• Wow! What a Semester! I have to say that English 1101 was one of the very few enjoyable classes I’ve had during my tenure at college. Very thought provoking lessons and interesting assignments.
• I genuinely enjoyed this class because it gifted me with the opportunity to expand my knowledge on unique writing styles while developing my own. Now that the semester is over, I have acquired a deeper appreciation for the work and dedication that professors put in.
• Overall the course was well thought out, beneficial, and to my surprise, entertaining. Stepping into this course, I dreaded the thought of any English class; I thought it would be a waste of my time. But, of course, the curriculum is very beneficial. However, the material itself could not have been taught by a better professor. Prof. Westengard’s delivery style and enticing interactive activities impacted students, which ultimately helped me understand the lessons more. This course would not have been the same without our open and patient professor, who makes even our dumbest questions feel smart.

English 2180-Studies in Identity and Orientation

• Thanks for your help is class it was truly an inciteful experience and one of know I will continue to use in my work in the Human Services Feild. I recently hosted an event in at my shelter (HEAT), providing information for mothers with teens who are Trans or LGBTQ, the information was well received. If more families have the information need on how to talk to their teens, this reduce homeless in the LGBTQ population.
• Professor Westengard is amazing. If you’re doubting whether to take the class or not, take it. If you have the opportunity, take it! It’s a very eye-opening and informative class. The professor will make sure you understand material without making you feel confused.
• Great professor and teaches well with great interest.
• Really great. Love and enjoyed my time with her as a professor. Really like the way she teaches. I took the class not really excepting anything of it but I really ended us enjoying the class so much. Thank you Professor for a great semester in your class
• Throughout the semester we read stories and watch clips from black, lesbian, and gay authors/film directors such as Audre Lorde, Marlon Riggs, Nella Larsen, and Toni Morrison. All authors who told the story of race through a different lens, and different time periods but analyzing how race in America has changed very little in terms of how black people are viewed. As a black woman myself, race isn’t a new topic but it is different when it intersects with gender and sexuality in a way I have not learned or talked about it before.
• Omg this class was on the best classes that I have taken in a very very long time. I really enjoyed it. I liked the way of your teaching and I loved all the debates that we had in class about the different topics. And I always end up in a argument with someone but it was what made it more fun. This class pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me express my opinions at all times and you as a professor is the one to thank for that. Really appreciate the class and your way of teaching it. Thank for for a great semester.
• Overall I took a lot away from this class that I’m thankfully for especially going into 2023 and I want to thank you for teaching this curriculum.
• When I decided to resume my education, choosing the right courses to fit my schedule was a priority. I chose ENG 2180 without reading the description or the name- it worked great with my schedule so I opted for it. A week before college started, I went through the course’s description and syllabus and I panicked. I remember telling my husband that I could care less about gender, sex, sexuality because it’s a topic that I never cared to explore or considered relevant. Needless to say, I was not looking forward to the class. However, as soon as the course began, I was intrigued by the lack of knowledge I had. I came to realize that I was living under a rock and containing such an outdated mentality. The main concepts I enjoyed learning about was sex, gender, and intersectionality because I was able to understand how complex everyone is and I am finally able to answer the question “Who am I?”.
• Overall, this course helped me change my perspective of gender studies and influenced me for a Gender & Sexuality Studies Minor. When I initially signed up for the course, I was not looking forward to it because I had developed my own ideas of what gender, sex, and sexuality was. However, as the weeks passed, I was fascinated with how complex gender studies and identity was. One thing I will continue to do after the course ends is to explore the intersectionality of my own identity and teach it to my family and friends because sometimes they think of me in a certain way that does not reflect my true identity. Therefore, I would like to thank Professor Westengard for developing an excellent course.
• It’s safe to say that I have learned so much but the one that is the most important is how much black culture has to do with the LGBTQ+ movements throughout history. I wasn’t aware of how much racism and even class to do with the movement
• It was truly an honor to have been able to take this course and I would definitely take it again if I was given that option to do so.
• This class was one of the best classes I’ve taken in my college career. I knew of some of the things that were taught throughout the semester, but what I enjoyed was that I was constantly being taught something new. It was never a time that I was in class, where I didn’t feel like I wasn’t learning something.
• I really want to say thank you for letting me be —-. I always wanted to be called —- rather than —- but never had to courage to do so or the professor never respected that because everything else is —-. So thank you so much, you really helped me heal a part of me that I didn’t realize was crying for help. And that was the way that I identify. This class has been the greatest class I have taken in the past 4 years I have been in this school and it’s thanks to you and your ability to capture a student’s attention and interest with every lesson you taught. And I will take with me the lessons you taught, being able to remain open-minded when it comes to gender identity and sexual orientation and be able to understand where and how we play roles in educating others on gender and sexuality.

English 3407-Gothic Literature and Visual Culture

• Prof. Westengard is amazing! Her openlab website is easy to follow and well organized. Every assignment given is explained thoroughly through video and she answers all emails in a timely manner. This class is different and she teaches it in a way that makes it relatable and easy to follow. She also incorporates things such as modern movies and comix books to get the points across. The final is very creative and I feel we were well prepared for it. I am not an english major, but if I was, I would take all of her classes!
• This class has  been my favorite experience this semester! Honestly, has me falling in love with Gothic Literature all over again. Thank you for everything and I really hope I can take another class with you! You make me almost want to be an English major
• I hope that you enjoyed this presentation and thank you for a great semester Professor! I genuinely enjoyed this class and all of the short Gothic stories we read throughout the semester!
• Thank you so much professor, I truly had so much fun this semester with these readings. I chose this class because I love anything dark, and knew it would be perfect for my horror fanatic self. The readings were so interesting and you really gave me such a wider insight on what is considered “gothic”. I’ll literally take this with me for the rest of my life, I love pointing out random gothic elements now LOL.
• Thank you, professor Westengard for a great semester and introducing me to a whole different perspective of what it means to be gothic!
• Another one of my favorite assignments was to watch “Dracula”. Although it is a very old film, it is such an iconic movie that I never brought myself to sit and watch, so it was really interesting to see how the movie brings about a bunch of gothic elements. I initially thought that the movie would be boring and hard to understand, being that the movie is from many years ago. However, I was proven wrong, and I actually became very fond of the film. I also liked the fact that we had to do some research on what was happening in the world at the time that Dracula was released because it forced us to think deep into everything and not just look at comparisons on the surface.
• I enjoyed this semester very much. The videos assigned to us were very refreshing to me and appreciated professor’s enthusiasm and how relatable Gothic Literature became to us.
• I fully enjoyed my time in this class and I thank everyone for making it active and interesting! : )

Foundations of Queer Studies, CUNY Graduate Center

• Thank you thank you thank you. I will miss this class. And hope to see you soon!
• I loved your class & all of the materials that we read over the past few months. I am sorry that I wasn’t always in the best head space for the conversations but I truly appreciated your understanding throughout the semester.
• In any case, I would like to thank the both of you for an  incredible class. I’m too exhausted to go into any real detail, but I  feel like this is the first time I have been “seen” in academia,  studying scholarship by, for, and about queer people. 
• I have really enjoyed this class; its made a huge difference in my work and would like to have a bit more time to submit work that is complete and shows that.
• Thanks for a wonderful semester learning and discussing queer theory! This course went beyond my hopes/expectations of building connections and creating space for myself to engage with the theoretical foundations of queer and trans studies. 
• Thank you so much for your patience, thoughtfulness, and caring throughout the semester. I really appreciated it. 
• I deeply enjoyed being a part of this course and learning from you and my peers. I am also excited to hear about developments that will occur with formalizing the minor, and other courses in the department. Thank you again for all you have done for students.