Jillian Linster Receives Arts & Sciences Outstanding Instructor Award
Linster joined USD in 2017 and currently serves as an English instructor and the professional writing coordinator. She also received her M.A. in English at USD in 2011 and her Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa in 2017.
Through both online and in-person instruction, Linster has taught a variety of introductory and advanced classes in English. These include Composition, Introduction to Literature, British Literature, Rhetorical Theory and Practice, Professional Writing, and Careers & English.
Linster’s said her approach to teaching involves viewing her students as unique individuals.
“My teaching is rooted in empathy for my students, seeing them not merely as names on a course roster but instead as complex human beings with needs, desires, goals, and challenges that influence their work and shape their path to success,” she said. “Perhaps my favorite course to teach is Rhetorical Theory & Practice in which I guide students in exploring the ways that our attitudes and choices affect how we see and think about ourselves as writers and others as our audience. My ultimate goal is to equip all of my students to flourish not only as academics but also as humans in the world at large.”
Linster said she mentors students primarily through teaching, where she models personal responsibility and effective communication. As the professional writing coordinator, she also mentors students in coursework decisions, graduate school applications, and career planning.
“I previously received exceptional mentorship from many of the faculty who are now my colleagues,” she said. “It is my immense honor to be able to pay that forward in advising and guiding my own students to prepare each of them for a future career that is as rich as the one I now enjoy.”
Darlene Farabee, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of English at USD, praised Linster’s extensive influence on a large number of students.
“In purely numerical terms, Dr. Linster has had an enormous, positive impact on USD writing students,” Farabee said. “Since the fall of 2017, Dr. Linster has taught 976 students in writing intensive courses. Her attentive care and rigorous responses to student writing has demonstrably aided students in improving their writing; the broad reach of her work rests on her individual engagement with every student in her many classes.”
The Outstanding Instructor Award is given annually to a faculty member in the College of Arts & Sciences who demonstrates outstanding classroom teaching and mentoring of students. This award is made possible through an annual gift from Mary Elizabeth Johnson, a graduate of the mass communication program in the College of Arts & Sciences at USD. After completing her graduate theological studies at Seattle University, she served as a chaplain at The Mayo Clinic for over three decades. She worked closely with women diagnosed with cancer, individuals and couples experiencing pregnancy loss, and persons experiencing infertility. She was a funded spiritual researcher and served as adjunct faculty at Mayo Medical School.
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