Associate Professor Malia Bruker (School of Communication) was recently recognized with the Outstanding Teaching in the Major Award at the Undergraduate level.

Professor Bruker earned her BA in Communication from Florida State in 2005, and went on to earn her MFA in 2013. She joined FSU as a faculty member in 2014. In addition to teaching, Bruker’s research is in filmmaking and media arts. Her films have notably been screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Athens International Film and Video Festival, Antimatter Video Art, Philadelphia Film Festival, and Chicago Underground Film Festival, and she won awards at the latter two festivals. She currently serves as Executive Vice President of University Film & Video Association.

The cornerstones of her teaching philosophy include growth, critical thinking, and collaboration. “I try to instill an appreciation of a growth mindset,” Bruker said.  “This is the idea that no one is born an expert and we all must continue to seek challenges in order to improve. I hope students can recognize that setbacks are a crucial part of learning and that our responses to mistakes are much more important than the mistakes themselves.”

Bruker explains that she intends for students to become critical thinkers and problem solvers. The Associate Professor underlines the power of working collaboratively to meet goals.

The Teaching and Advising Awards were created to honor outstanding faculty who prioritize student success. “Receiving this award means quite a lot. Teaching did not come naturally for me,” Bruker said. “So I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out how I can do a better job of reaching students, meeting learning objectives, and sending them into the world as prepared as possible.” “I could not have imagined winning a university-level teaching award when I started 8 years ago.”

To view Bruker’s work, visit her personal site here.