Scholarship of Excellence in Teaching Fellowship
The Scholarship of Excellence in Teaching Fellowship: Program for Transforming Student
Success is a structured and supportive environment to enhance teaching and to promote
student success.
We are excited to announce the call for applications for the Scholarship of Excellence in Teaching (SET) Fellowship for Spring 2027 and Fall 2027. Over the past nine years, more than 100 faculty members from a variety of disciplines have participated in a structured and supportive environment of reflection to enhance their teaching and to promote student understanding and success.
Faculty will participate in four monthly meetings, discuss selections from four enriching books, and post four reflections on the SET discussion board. The goal of these discussions and reflections is to create a strategy to enhance student success in one or more courses. The four monthly meetings in Spring 2027 will be on Fridays from 2:00- 4:30 p.m.; the meetings will be on the Rockville campus. The tentative dates for Spring 2027 are February 5, March 5, April 2, and May 7, 2027.
Faculty will implement and assess their strategy and discuss it and other pedagogical
ideas during our four monthly meetings and on the monthly discussion board posts.
They will also continue to read selections from books to enhance their learning.
The four monthly meetings in Fall 2027 will be on Fridays from 2:00- 4:30 p.m.; the
meetings will be on the Rockville campus. The tentative dates for Fall 2027 are September
10, October 8, November 5, and December 3, 2027.
On Friday, January 22, 2027, the SET Faculty Cohort of 2027 will attend the presentations by SET Faculty Cohort of 2026, who will showcase the strategies they developed to enhance student understanding. The presentations will take place in MK 122 in Rockville from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
See examples of presentations from previous semesters.
The application is open to both full-time and part-time faculty. Twelve faculty members will be selected.
Participants will receive 1.5 ESH for the Spring and 1.5 ESH for the Fall, a total of 3 ESH, for participating in the program. ALT ESH is funded by the Office of Academic Affairs and the Deans of the participating fellows. Applicants are expected to attend all meetings and to actively participate in discussions.
The deadline to submit the application is 11:59 pm on Friday, October 30, 2026.
See the SET Faculty Fellowship Application Form. new window
To facilitate the submission of your dean and chair’s recommendation, please request the recommendation from them as soon as possible, provide them with your completed application, and provide them with the link for them to submit their letter. See the SET Recommendation Form. new window
Many fellows mention that they benefit from the interdisciplinary nature of the program and the opportunity to reflect on their teaching. In addition, fellows have had the opportunity to meet with well-known scholars such as Dr. Paul Hanstedt, author of Creating Wicked Students, and Dr. Phillip Spector, co-author of What Universities Owe Democracy. Fellows also have the opportunity to participate in workshops and to learn about sabbatical projects of their MC peers.
If you plan to apply, I would be delighted if you would send me a quick email to let me know. If you have any questions, please email Heather Satrom. If three years have passed since you last participated, you may apply again.
“Over the past year, I’ve grown more intentional and reflective as an educator. I’ve always focused on helping students build strong quantitative and analytical skills, but this fellowship pushed me to think more deeply about how students learn, how they struggle, how they build confidence, and how I can design structures that support them through complex STEM material. I find myself paying more attention to metacognition, transparency, and student engagement in both lecture and lab.”
Kevin Morris, Chemical and Biological Sciences, 2025 Cohort
“This fellowship helped me become more intentional in how I design learning, not just around content but around how students think and retain information. I’ve shifted away from focusing on content coverage and toward building in more opportunities for retention, transfer, and critical thinking. One of the most impactful parts was meeting faculty from other disciplines and realizing that many of us struggle with the same issues—like engagement, motivation, and cognitive overload—no matter what we teach. Hearing how others approach those challenges was incredibly helpful, and I’ve picked up several strategies I wouldn’t have found on my own.”
Robert Tollefson, Chemical and Biological Sciences, 2025 Cohort
“The SET fellowship is the single most enriching experience I have had at Montgomery College. I really enjoyed the experience and looked forward to attending the meetings. Thanks to being in this cohort, hearing ideas from my fellow cohort members, and doing a project, I was able to take the step to do something that I had in the back of my mind - but had always hesitated to do in the past.”
Maria Brunett, Mathematics, 2025 Cohort
“I’m most grateful for the camaraderie among the cohort members and for the reading materials, both of which offered me the opportunity to enhance my approach to teaching with increased purpose and agency, and to broaden my repertoire of assignments and activities with those intentions in mind. I believe it’s important to occasionally step back from the busy pace of our lives and give ourselves a moment to reflect on the choices we make, in our lives and our teaching, on the connections we feel and the impact we have on students, colleagues and the community. This fellowship has given me those moments, as I connected to the readings and even more so to the discussions and heartfelt posts of my cohort members. I would recommend the fellowship to anyone who believes they would benefit from more purposeful teaching and from shared connections to other faculty members.”
Valerie Tanner, World Languages, 2025 Cohort
"Over the past year, I’ve become more deliberate about my teaching. The fellowship got me to slow down in a way I honestly never do during the semester. Instead of jumping from one task to the next, I actually had space to think about what I’m doing in the classroom and why. I’ve been paying closer attention to how my course design, assignments, and feedback shape the way students learn and show up. A lot of the growth I’ve felt this year might look subtle from the outside, but internally it’s been a real shift. I’m not reinventing my classes, but I am shifting how I approach the parts that matter most.”
Daniel Wilson, Sociology, 2025 Cohort
Dr. Paul Hanstedt, author of Creating Wicked Students, discusses his book with SET faculty fellows on September 12, 2025.
Additional Information
Taking College Teaching Seriously: Pedagogy Matters!—Fostering Student Success Through
Faculty Centered Practice Improvement
by Gail Mellow, Diana Woolis, and Susan Restler
2015
The New Education: How To Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World
in Flux
by Cathy N. Davidson
2017
Breakaway Learners: Strategies for Post-Secondary Success with At-Risk Students
by Karen Gross
2017
MODELS
LaGuardia Community College: Three-Semester Carnegie Seminar
El Paso Community College
El Paso Community College: Teachership Academy
University of North Carolina Charlotte
- Scholarship of Excellence in Teaching Program: Transforming Student Success new window
Montgomery College has created a program to enhance teaching and promote student success. Goucher College president, Dr. José Antonio Bowen, was chosen to be the keynote speaker of the kick-off meeting. - Dr. Paul Hanstedt, the Director of Pedagogical Innovation at Roanoke College, presents
"Creating Wicked Students: Designing Courses for a Complex World new window" to the 2018 Cohort of the The Scholarship of Excellence in Teaching program at Montgomery
College.
- Cohort Presentations
When was the last time you set time aside just to reflect on how you could have done something better? And when was the last time you were able to chat with colleagues and share your teaching methods and results?
As mentors and teachers, we want to make a clear, tangible difference in the lives of others, including our own.
The Montgomery College Scholarship of Excellence in Teaching is a structured and supportive
environment of reflection to enhance
teaching and to promote student success.
For more information, view the Scholarship of Excellence in Teaching brochure (PDF, 
) .