No question about it — Whitman is a challenging place. Professors here have high expectations of students and will push you beyond your intellectual comfort zone. But they are also incredibly supportive. You’ll find them right beside you as you learn to think, question, explore, connect, create, imagine, reason, and prove.

“Faculty at Whitman are not scholar-teachers,” declares Assistant Professor of Spanish Nohemy Solórzano-Thompson. “They are teacher-scholars — our number one mission is to teach.”

It is this dedication to teaching that drew Professor Solórzano-Thompson to Whitman. Growing up in Mexico, she inherited her passion for teaching from her father who was a professor at the UNAM Medical School in Mexico. “He was a Jewish man from Nicaragua who was raised in Los Angeles and had lived and worked in many different countries around the world,” recalls Professor Solórzano-Thompson. “He basically made me understand that education was the only way I could make an impact on the world.”

Having received most of her own education at large research universities, including a Ph.D. from Cornell University, Professor Solórzano-Thompson looked for an institution where she could balance her interest in scholarship within her field with her passion for teaching and mentoring her students. And she firmly believes that Whitman was the perfect choice.

“I remember a convocation speech by President Bridges where he made a guarantee that every professor would know their students by name by the end of their first week of class. Of course we all laughed and said “oh, no!” But the fact is it’s usually true. We make a serious effort to get to know our students. We interact with them in the classroom and during our office hours. We chat with them over coffee or lunch in the cafeteria. We travel with them to conferences and on field trips across the nation and around the world.”

So what is it about the Whitman experience that makes it unique?

“I think Whitman offers balance. Our students are happy because they lead balanced lives. You’ll see them excited about their classes and excelling in their presentations and research and thesis work. But you’ll also see them on the lawn, playing Frisbee and having fun. It almost looks staged but it’s totally genuine.”

“Whitman is rigorous but not competitive in the cut-throat way that many schools are,” Professor Solórzano-Thompson adds. “There is a culture in this community of supporting one another. There is a strong and comprehensive support system in place. It is a balance which ensures students are never so academically pressured that they burn out.”