TINA AND DAVID BELLET AWARD TO RECOGNIZE OUTSTANDING TEACHING AT PITT

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 15--University of Pittsburgh faculty will be recognized for their teaching skills through the Tina and David Bellet College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Teaching Award, established with a $200,000 donation from the Bellet family.

"Teachers should be acknowledged, rewarded, and encouraged," said David Bellet, an alumni contributor to Pitt who was inspired by his wife Tina, a teacher, when he met her. "Over the past 25 years we have met many of her former students and their very positive comments about how her teaching skills motivated them made a strong impression."

Bellet, founder of Crown Advisors Ltd. an investment firm with offices in New York and San Francisco, said that he has used some of his wife's techniques as a guest lecturer for the last 15 years at The Stanford University Graduate School of Business. "I have been amazed at how positive the students are when I meet them a decade later."

Bellet and his wife thought this award program would be an effective way to combine several of their interests. "There can be tremendous leverage in our society if excellent teachers can encourage students to pursue further education," said Bellet.

A committee will annually award faculty who have taught in CAS over the past three years whose strong teaching skills are recognized through student teaching evaluations, peer evaluations, and course materials.

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