In her first year as a tenure track Assistant Professor of English, Mylène Dressler has already made a powerful impression and won the Bruce B. Stewart Teaching Award for non-tenured faculty.

“She floats across the room and pirouettes among the students,” said President and Professor of Political Science Kent Chabotar. “(She often encourages students) to express their ideas and pushes them further to express their thoughts.”

Sophomore Lucas Perez-Leahy, a student in her English 102 class said, “She reminds me of a more elegant and classy version of Professor Trelawney. She dances around the room and captures your attention. It makes it very, very hard to fall asleep.”

Diya Abdo, chair and associate professor of English said, “She is so incredibly interested in other people, very other-centered, that when Mylène talks to you feel like you’re the center of the universe. It’s so easy to fall in love with her because she makes you feel so special.”

Again and again, students and colleagues alike praise Dressler’s irrepressible energy and vivacious enthusiasm. She leaves in her wake a group, awed and inspired.

The Bruce B. Stewart Teaching awards recognize staff and tenured and non-tenured faculty who pursue excellence and go beyond the duties of their assigned position.

As faculty advisor to the Greenleaf Review, supporter of the young Guilford Writing Group, organizer of writing workshops for students and constant presence as an advisor, Dressler certainly strives beyond what her job title denotes.

Her dedication even extends to her life outside of Guilford.

“I remember when Mylène was buying a house here in Greensboro,” said Abdo. “Mylène thought about the fact that the house that she would buy would have a big enough space that she could host students in her house.”

Perhaps what makes Dressler’s commitment to exuberance even more remarkable is the exhaustive nature of teaching.

What drives this passion?

“Well, it must be love,” said Dressler in an email interview. “I love the community. I love words and stories and literature, I love the English language and I love the unpredictability of all of it. A class is a text everyone is writing as they go along. I feel awake and alert and alive when I write and when I teach.”

This love was evident to the committee, made up of two students and three faculy members, that read the nomination and recommended Dressler for the award.

“Not only does she keep her students alert and engaged, which she does with creative teaching methods and her dynamic presence, but she also changes the way that students think,” said first-year Jose Oliva.

Dressler’s dedication to her students creates a community of trust and confidence to make changes and be successful.

“I went home, and I called my mom, and I told her ‘Mom, there’s this crazy professor who is visiting campus,’” recalls Anney Bolgiano, co-editor-in-chief of the Greenleaf Review. “Three years later, I’m really happy to be working with her still. She’s really altered the course of my life as a writer and as a student”

Dressler’s habit of inspiring those around her is a learned skill.

“I teach, I am sure, because of my mother,” said Dressler. “She was and is a ballet teacher, and some of my earliest memories are of watching her lead a ballet class, pushing her students hard — hard, but with such joy. That combination of rigor and in-your-face passion stayed with me.”

Students experience this rigor and drive in every class Dressler teaches.

“Even if you fulfill all the basic requirements of an assignment, she will continue to push you further with your writing, even if it beyond the parameters of the class,” said Perez-Leahy.

Dressler has earned her honors as the winner of a Bruce B. Stewart Teaching Award, though maybe, the awards should be called the Bruce B. Stewart Teaching, Advising, Engaging and All-Around Inspiring Award.

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