Farewell from CTL Director Richard Freishtat

It is early in the morning as I sit in my office in Hearst Gymnasium to compose this blog. The sun is shining already, the day is warm and bright. The setting is ideal for both composition and reflection. As I create the following piece, a final ode of sorts for my Berkeley faculty colleagues, I want to say thank you. I will be leaving my position as Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning in the next couple weeks to pursue a new professional opportunity I hope will stretch me and my knowledge in the same ways we aim to push our students to pursue continual, lifelong learning.

These past six years I have worked at Berkeley in the CTL have been the most rewarding of my career. The opportunity to work with, and alongside, some of the brightest minds in the world has been a constant motivator. More so, coming to know many of you so well has also shown me that intelligence and kindness, humility, and care more often go hand-in-hand than we often assume.

Faculty pedagogical enrichment has a very indirect impact. I don’t get to see your students’ lightbulbs go on when they “get it”. I don’t get to see your students’ smile with gratification when they’ve overcome failure to realize success. I don’t get the student email telling me how my class transformed their lives. I don’t get to grow myself from students challenging the status quo in the field, or bringing a new and nuanced perspective to a topic that has been all too long featuring a one-sided dialogue. My direct impact is with, and on, you as the teacher. And I have found no greater professional satisfaction than the direct impact I get to have on you and your teaching practice. I do get to see your excitement when we figure out a new way to teach something on which students typically struggle. I do get to see your warm smile of gratitude when you realize what was a perceived failure was actually a necessary step towards realizing a new innovation in teaching. I do get to read your email of thanks and appreciation for being committed to helping you be even better at what it is you do so well already. You may think each conversation and experience is just a blip on the radar, but I am telling you now how meaningful it is to have developed the relationships we’ve forged together and how much I have learned through it all. I’ve saved every single email you’ve ever sent me. Why? Because you took the time to send it, and that means something.

Fiat Lux, and Go Bears!