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Glowing letters from students and colleagues reveal how profoundly Dr. Stacie Raucci has influenced the community at Union College since her arrival there in 2004. Not only has she taught a wide range of courses in Latin, Greek, and classical civilization, but she has also designed each course with remarkable creativity. To cite just one example, in her course on “Reading Rome: Textual Approaches to the City” she assigns her students to go hunting for inscriptions around the campus or in downtown Schenectady and then to write a paper reflecting on what those inscriptions would tell you if they were all that remained of the college or the town.

Her department chair notes that, through her innovative teaching, Dr. Raucci has made important contributions to cross-disciplinary studies at Union. Besides team-teaching a course in Women and Gender Studies, she has introduced an ethics module in her course on Sex & Gender in Classical Antiquity, an engineering module in her course on the City of Rome, and an entrepreneurship module in her course on the Ancient World in Film & Literature. A student who took that last course writes, “This is my favorite class I have ever taken at Union because I think about what I learned in that class almost every day of my life.” And Dr. Raucci does not make these courses easy, either for her students or for herself: in a lecture course with 136 students, she assigned a final five-page paper, two one-page papers, and weekly one-page film critiques, along with five quizzes, a midterm, and a final essay exam!

In the classroom Dr. Raucci has a kind, caring presence; as one student writes, “When I walked into her Latin class, her smile and ‘Salve!’ was enough to let me know that I had made the right choice.” According to another, “Dr. Raucci’s lessons went beyond reading and translating or memorizing charts. She used a variety of resources and media that enabled students with different learning styles to engage with the concepts.” Yet a third writes, “Her lessons were often like a model of Bloom’s taxonomy.”

Dr. Raucci’s students routinely line up outside her office door for informal meetings and advice. Two ex-students who are now both Latin teachers sum up her impact on them: “Stacie Raucci is the type of teacher I aspire to become: one who can change the life of students by inviting them to experience the world of possibilities that the study of classics has in store.” “Professor Raucci demonstrated to me that I should face any challenges coming my way with an open mind and with as little fear as possible; she exemplifies what a true teacher should be—passionate, compassionate, and completely real!”

The Society for Classical Studies is delighted to bestow on Dr. Raucci, in honor of her dynamic teaching and her constant concern for the well-being of her students, this Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Classics at the College Level.