ASHLEY LUCIA TORRES, Ph.D.

“It is extremely clear to me that the instructor has spent a lot of time to consider the best way to explain course concepts with an attention to both rote procedure and deeper theoretical understanding of said procedures. In order to achieve this, she creates extremely detailed and color-coordinated power point slides to ensure that
all students can easily follow the procedure of multi-step tasks which often build on one another and become quite convoluted. In addition, she provides several self-made handouts that act as effective scaffolding for students to independently complete assignments and other statistical tasks. As a former teacher myself, I am aware of the level of subject knowledge and investment of time and energy it takes
to teach and support students at the level that this instructor does… As someone who has struggled to keep up in mathematics courses since elementary school, I fully attribute my success in this class to the dedication of this instructor.”

“Her passion for helping her students, her conciseness in teaching, and just her TEACHING in general. I struggle with statistics, but stats have felt like a ‘breeze’ because Ashley explains everything so well (in such a short amount of time too which is incredible). She makes statistics… fun which is a bizarre thing for me to say I never thought that I would say that. I love doing the homework and filling out the charts she gives me and reading all the notes she gives us because I can tell so much of her time and energy went into them and I actually LEARN something from reading them. Even if she’s only a TA, she has been my favorite ‘teacher’ at UCI by far.”

“Ashley is WONDERFUL. I would say her biggest strength is her ability to explain things. She words things in a way that makes difficult to understand concepts more precise. She also cares very deeply about our success, so if she can’t find the right way to explain it at first, she will keep going until everyone in the room understands.”

“There is something really special about Ashley teaching that gives everyone around her a joy for learning. And also an UNDERSTANDING. I hope she gets an acknowledgement from UCI or something because I could not have passed statistics without her.”