58ºÚÁÏÍø

The Louis and Dorina Brutocao Award for Teaching Excellence

Nomination deadline for 2025-26 Academic Year: May 11, 2026

The Louis and Dorina Brutocao Award for Teaching Excellence recognizes outstanding faculty who have developed a well-deserved reputation for teaching excellence that makes a durable difference in the lives of students by:

• Promoting intellectual curiosity and active learning in undergraduates;
• Modeling and fostering intellectual rigor and honesty;
• Developing connections between course material and life outside the classroom;
• Setting an example for students reflecting lifelong intellectual curiosity and personal growth;
• Setting an example for faculty through unassailable professionalism, in and out of the classroom;
• Being not just available to students, but proactive in building effective interactions with students while being consistently attentive to their needs, and enjoying the teacher-student relationship;
• Supporting 58ºÚÁÏÍø’s values, goals, and tradition.

Continuing faculty with 15 or more years of service teaching undergraduates at SCU are eligible for this award. This is Santa Clara’s highest teaching award, aimed to recognize career-long dedication and exceptional success reaching and motivating undergraduate students. Faculty remain eligible and nomination materials will be preserved in faculty award files for three years. As the University’s pinnacle teaching honor, an individual may win this award only once in his or her career.

Nomination and Selection Process

Nominations will be solicited from undergraduate students and recent alumni each spring. Recipients of this award must receive at least one nomination from a past or present undergraduate student, though recipients typically receive numerous student letters of nomination, and additional nominations by faculty colleagues may strengthen the evidence for this award as well. Self-nomination is also invited and encouraged.

The award selection committee –comprised of two undergraduate students, two alumni, and at least one previous recipient of each of the teaching awards, with the Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence as ex officio– will review nomination letters received through the single teaching award submission portal, combined with any nomination letters received in the past 3 years, and evaluate them against the award criteria to identify their recommended award recipient. Splitting or sharing an award is not appropriate except in extraordinary circumstances (e.g., a long-term teaching team). Therefore, the committee should find a way to select a single recipient, rather than accept “ties”.