Teaching Medal Award Winner

Sai Bhatawedekar
Manoa

Sai Bhatawedekar is an assistant professor of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures at UH Manoa.

She states that she and her students transform the classroom into a “dynamic, vibrant, hilarious and stimulating learning environment that brings out the best in all of them.” Colleagues who have observed her classes say that they have been inspired by her teaching practices.

Bhatawedekar’s forthcoming publication as a Hindi text and workbook with CD-DVDs will benefit language programs nationally that struggle with inadequate and outdated books. The depth and breadth of her extensive, eclectic research has significantly and profoundly impacted her teaching.

One student defines her own career path as only a dream previous to Bhatawedekar’s influence on her, saying “her influence on student success advances the academic community of the university in cultivating new expectations for those born and raised in Hawai‘i.”