01/02/2015

To the Promotion Committee,

I am writing this letter in regards to Dr. Samantha Bankston and it is my great honor and privilege to
offer my recommendation to Dr. Bankston for promotion at Sierra Nevada College. Dr. Bankston has been, and
continues to be, a positive force at SNC due to her willingness to dedicate herself entirely to the classes she
teaches, the honors program she co-chairs, and the students who are involved in either.
Dr. Bankston has an ability that few other professors do in that her work in the classroom serves as an
inspiration for others to think critically down avenues students would've never considered in the first place.
From image and writing to existential literature, Dr. Bankston's lectures and active class discussions engender a
slew of new ideas and connections that would be impossible to not relate to other classes and indeed our own
lives. Her teaching methods are distinct in that her own qualities of empathy and fierce independence allow
students to not just undertake a rote memorization of facts or figures but actively involves them in their own
education and enables them to experience learning in ways that few other professors can achieve. Her ability to
elevate a classroom conversation into a dialectic ensures that students leave the class with more insight than
when they entered it.
Dr. Bankston has been one of the most important influences on the student I became while I was an
undergraduate. My first semester I had Dr. Bankston for three of my five classes: Contemporary American
Literature, French 101, and Existentialism. The critical thinking tools and content Dr. Bankston presented in
these classes both challenged me and gave rise to an independence of thought which led me to discover more of
the arts and philosophy, disciplines that set me on the path I am today. Moreover, it enabled me to make
connections between my entire learning experience at SNC, and fostered discussion in other classes. The
experience I gained from Dr. Bankston has not only been formative but an affirmation that critical thought and
constructive discourse still exist in higher education.
Outside of the classroom Dr. Bankston was an affirming source of guidance for my extracurricular
academic pursuits. The Honors Program pushed me to extend my academic studies farther than I thought
possible with the end result being the privilege of presenting my research at the National Conference on
Undergraduate Research in Lexington, Kentucky in 2014. Through her leadership the Honors Program has now
become an integral part of the campus and now has its own student symposium where students are able to
showcase their own research into topics of their choosing, This would have not been possible without Dr.
Bankston's tireless dedication to the program and her belief in the students in it.
I am immensely grateful to have had the privilege of knowing Dr. Bankston in the classroom and outside
of it. Her influence on not only myself but other students is far reaching and entirely positive. I have no doubt
that the experiences I have had with Dr. Bankston will continue to be an integral part of my postgraduate studies
and a part of who I will continue to be as a person. I fully endorse Dr. Bankston for promotion and believe that
she is a cornerstone of Sierra Nevada College.
Bryce Bullins
SNC Alumnus Class of 2014
bryce.bullins@gmail.com
775.910.9837