Anonymous comments from my CSC 324/326 class:
I earned my Certified Scrum Master and Professional Scrum Master certifications this past weekend after taking the class, and wanted to let you know that I thought 324 did a perfect job of preparing me for those. I felt like I had a sufficient understanding going into the class to do well on the exam, and realized after 16 hours of instruction that I felt the 324 crash course in scrum and agile had given me all the basics I needed.
I just wanted to drop a special thank you for teaching the CSC-324, 326 courses at Grinnell. Currently, I am working full-time as a Mobile Software Engineer and I cannot stress enough how much the skills I garnered from that class are proving to be beneficial in my day-to-day life.
Anonymous comments from my CSC 301 classes:
I’m glad I got to take this course with Anya. I’ve heard horror stories of students struggling with this class with other professors. I’m glad the department finally has someone who loves teaching this course and is good at it.
I took 301 last semester with you. It was truly amazing. You’re doing a really good job.
Shona Islam, an undergraduate student in my CSE 232 class, states:
Without a doubt, Ms. Anya is the best professor I have ever had the honor of having in my college experience. She is super organized in how she presents the learning material and she does so in way that is sincere. In that, it shows that she truly wants students to learn and understand the material, even if it involves teaching the material from several different angles, which she is very good at. As a former student, I have witnessed Ms. Anya continuously go so above and beyond as a CSE instructor that I could not help but feel inspired and motivated to be a woman in engineering myself. She holds a very kind, caring, and knowledgeable disposition. Ms. Anya has definitely had a strong and positive impact on my academic career, I am very grateful to have had her as an instructor.
Eric Wayman, also an undergraduate student in my CSE 232 class, states:
I was a student in Introduction to Computer Programming II taught by Anya, a course which combines instruction in the C++ language with an introduction to more fundamental topics such as dynamic vs static memory, stack vs heap allocation, and the implementation of classic data structures. Anya was able to explain the thought process behind idiomatic C++ implementations of various procedures, making potentially dry material interesting and thought-provoking, while providing useful diagrams and examples to help us understand fundamental computer science concepts more easily. Every class included time to work in pairs on worksheets that required us to utilize the concepts we had just learned to complete programming tasks. She directly supervised this activity, answering questions and giving hints that helped us make connections and fill in gaps in our understanding, while allowing us to work towards solutions on our own. In this sense she was more than just a lecturer presenting us with material, but was an actual participant in our learning process. She was friendly and welcoming of questions no matter how basic they were. I also appreciated how organized the class was: the labs and projects were timed well with the lectures to help us reinforce our understanding and to evaluate us on what we learned. Anya was an excellent teacher who gave me a strong foundation on which to build my future computer science education.
Xiaoxiao Lu, also an undergraduate student in my CSE 232 and 231 classes, states:
I’m happy to be writing about Anya Vostinar, who was taking part of all my programming classes in college. She was my TA in one of my programming course, when was she provided valuable advice and inspires for my every projects, and so as everyone in class. I was impressed by her solid knowledge background and patience. Anya was also my instructor of C++ introduction class later. In every class I could see a very well-prepare package, and she delivered it to us students with the most understandable way. She emphasized on practice when teaching. Everyone could have a chance to exercise and get help to be familiar with what was delivered in her class.
I was appreciated by her teaching style. It was comfortable be in her class, but Anya took every details into preciseness. As a student I’m confident to say that she has appropriate skills and patience to teach, and I do feel her passion on it.
Jacob Fenton, an undergraduate student I mentored, states:
I had the opportunity to work with Anya this last summer on a research project in her field. I really enjoyed the project because Anya's style of mentoring allowed me to own the project, but didn't let me drown. That is, she gave me exactly the right amount of direction and assistance but let me do the pathfinding, let me propose my own solutions, and let me run into the problems, which made for a wonderful learning experience. She suggested papers and books to read, as sources and background for the research. When we held meetings, Anya would help me in preparation if a presentation were involved (e.g., reviewing slides or posters), but let me lead the meetings and field the questions. The end result was that I had a project I felt I had stake in, that I had contributed to, but I didn't feel like I'd been struggling to complete it.
Erin O'Hara, an undergraduate student I mentored as part of the Professorial Assistant program, states:
I was incredibly fortunate to have Anya as a mentor when I was a freshman entering the Computer Science program at Michigan State University. I had nearly no programming experience when I joined her research team, but within weeks I was participating in research projects by her side. I truly cannot say enough about her overwhelming patience and excellent ability to explain complex topics. She was an incredibly knowledgeable graduate student, but completely willing to spend time on simple concepts I had yet to grasp as an inexperienced freshman. The short time in which I was able to learn enough to conduct real research truly reflects Anya’s exceptional ability to teach and motivate as a mentor.
As Anya guided me through research in the lab, she always offered to assist me in my classes as well. I always knew that she did not simply want me to be a successful researcher, but a successful person overall. She encouraged me to seek out opportunities in my field, and even kept me on track when I doubted majoring in Computer Science. I felt inexperienced and overwhelmed in a degree program where several of my peers had been introduced to basic programming concepts in high school. However, Anya motivated me to try more Computer Science classes and explore research that made me excited about my major. I am now a junior with a high GPA and several internship offers in my field. I could be in a completely different place now if Anya had not encouraged me to persevere through any doubts I had in myself. I am very thankful that I had Anya there to guide me through those uncertain and overwhelming first few semesters. Anya was an outstanding mentor and will surely bring her excellent leadership ability to her future endeavors.
3rd Grade Science Day - I organized a science day for a group of third graders, Melissa Goldman, one of the teachers, states:
While I was teaching third grade during the 2014-2015 school year, the other third grade teacher and I took our students to Michigan State University for a science program that was planned and coordinated by Anya Vostinar. The students participated in several interactive stations which taught them fascinating things about fish, bacteria, and evolution. These stations included hands-on and age-appropriate activities, and showed off the impressive work that the MSU graduate students and professors were doing. Anya did a wonderful job of creating a welcoming and engaging field trip, and all the third graders enjoyed themselves and came back from the field trip excited about science and college. Overall I was very pleased with the science outreach program that Anya Vostinar planned.