On Wednesday April 26th, at the End-of-Year SPO celebration event, You Jin Kim and Daniel Persia were presented with the Arcadio Díaz-Quiñones Teaching Prize for excellence in teaching by Christina Lee, Director of Graduate Studies, with SPO Department Chair, Pedro Meira Monteiro by her side. Congratulations to You Jin and Daniel and their achievements!

You Jin Kim acceptance and comments:

"I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to my students of SPA 107 of last Fall 2022. They have energized and inspired me with their enthusiasm every single day. They have made incredible progress and I believe this was a fruit of our collaboration. It has been such a privilege to have met them as they have always motivated me to do my best in teaching. It has been an amazing experience and I have learned a lot about teaching from their commitments to learning as well. I also wish to thank The Department of Spanish and Portuguese for giving me the opportunity and inspiration to teach in this fantastic environment. I am also additionally grateful for all the conversations in the methodology seminar and with my colleagues. I am so honored to be part of SPO and I look forward to teaching in the coming years."

Daniel Persia acceptance and comments: 

“It’s such an honor to receive the 2023 Arcadio Díaz-Quiñones Prize. Teaching has been fundamental to my experience at Princeton; the students bring unparalleled curiosity and teach me something new about language every day. When I see how quickly they progress in a semester—and then in programs like Princeton in Argentina, Spain or Portugal—I’m reminded of how languages help us to unlock new ways of thinking about our world.

I began my career teaching mathematics, so it’s been quite a journey since then! Thanks to all my students, and to both the Spanish and Portuguese teams in SPO, for providing this incredible opportunity. And to Arcadio, who has done so much for the department and the field."