Teaching Testimonial
Georgia Southern University Student Testimonial
I took IT 1130 with Dr. Cruz during the Fall 2023 semester. This was my second atempt at this course, as I had taken it before,
online, but was unable to complete it. Clearly, in-person classes are beter suited to me than online courses.
Dr. Cruz has an amazingly broad understanding of all IT-related subjects and translates that knowledge effecvely to her students.
Her delivery is fun and comprehensive, and she never hesitates to give addional atenon to students that need further clarificaon. I believe I will have at least three more classes with Dr. Cruz in my IT curriculum, and I am definitely looking forward to all of them.
-- Keegan Leonard
After spending two semesters taking your courses, you remain to be one of my favorite
professors to learn from. You have a clear dedication to the success of your students and
provide easy-to-understand materials to help us succeed. Your attitude toward teaching your
courses allows me to enjoy the lectures, and I find myself more engaged in learning the
content you teach. I look forward to taking more of your courses in the future!
-- Spencer Clifton Thompson
I am delighted to provide this testimonial in recognition of the outstanding teaching abilities
and commitment demonstrated by my data programming instructor. Throughout the course,
her passion for the subject matter was evident, making complex concepts accessible and
engaging. Her approachability and willingness to address questions, both in and out of class,
created a supportive learning environment. I appreciate Professor Cruz's commitment to my
learning journey and her genuine interest in my progress. Her encouragement has instilled in
me a newfound confidence in data programming. I feel well-prepared to navigate the
complexities of this field, thanks to the comprehensive and effective teaching style exhibited
throughout the course. Thank you for your outstanding guidance and support.
-- Ashanti Harris
Hello Professor Cruz, I was in your fall IT-1430-B @ 9:30 a.m . After having your class it
made me realize how much I love creating and designing websites! I never gave you a proper
thank you for being an amazing professor, also a question I have to ask do you know if there
are offers on this campus to do more with web development? I asked my advisor, but he only
gave me the run around and I wondered since you had a class for it you would have some
insight.
-- Ashlyn Cheevers
I wish to express my gratitude for Professor Cruz's exceptional commitment to her students.
Her dedication surpasses conventional norms, notably evident in her instruction in data
programming. I appreciate her for the considerable time she has invested in giving me
knowledge on this subject matter. Professor Cruz particularly helped me with her adept
guidance on the effective use of Python, a very technical programming language. Were it not
for her expertise, the learning process would undoubtedly have been long and difficult.
--Marion Fickling
This is my 2nd class with Dr. Cruz as my instructor and as expected from last time, the course was very well organized and Dr. Cruz always gives appropriate feedback/help when you need it. Professors like her make college a lot less stressful and more engaging.
--Elijah Fensler
I really enjoyed my web design class with Mrs. Cruz and I definitely learned a lot. I really liked the way your organized labs and your assignments. I could tell you really take the time to make sure everyone is understanding what they are learning. I really liked how multiple times while presenting if asked, she would kindly slow down if she was moving too fast. She always responds to her emails within 24 hours and was always more than willing to be flexible and answer any questions I had. I would like to say thank you so much for caring and being so passionate about the class!
--Nathaniel Brown
After taking Web Development with you I have learned so much from not knowing anything about web development to knowing how to create a whole webpage. I have learned how to make tables with and without Javascript. I have learned about HTML and connecting it to a CSS style sheet. I also learned how to create specific colors on my background and learned about the color wheel. The videos in this class helped me so much that when I didn't understand something I could go back and watch it later. Dr. Cruz, I appreciated all your help and I am excited to be doing Data Programming with you soon you are a great teacher.
--Sharri Reid
I appreciate you providing such a wonderful and enjoyable semester of website development. I truly appreciate how wellorganized your course is, and I want to thank you for making it engaging. The manner this course was taught inspired me to study more as a student, and you should be fully credited for it. The course topic was indeed challenging, but you made it easier for students like myself who are hesitant to contact professors frequently to seek assistance from you through folio chat and office hours. Additionally, I want to thank you for enabling students to arrive early and complete the exam at their own pace. Last but not least, I want to say thanks for publishing instructional videos on Folio.
--Ladaniel Jefferson
Dr. Cruz is a great teacher. She thoroughly covers each and every topic that is taught. The class is very organized and the topics are reiterated throughout the course to make sure you have a deep understanding. We do lots of labs to practice the material that we learn. Dr. Cruz also encourages us to learn and experiment with code outside of the classroom. Dr. Cruz is very knowledgeable and will answer any questions that you have. Dr. Cruz is an amazing professor and if you are interested in learning to code I would highly recommend her.
--Christian Suarez
I have learned much more than I ever thought I would from this class. At the beginning of this class, I was very skeptical as I had not done much with IT. Professor Cruz went out of her way to make sure that each student received what they needed and understood the content. Professor Cruz challenged me mental to be able to think through problems; evaluating and fixing issues myself. Not only was this class a good challenge but also Professor Cruz encouraged questions and class participation. I have enjoyed this class and appreciate the time Professor Cruz took to make this content engaging and easy to comprehend.
---Abigail Tedder
Thank you for this semester. This is my second class I have taken with you. I have learned a lot. You always make the time to make sure your students have a solid understanding of the material. Your ability to work with multiple students on a variety of issues is refreshing. It is a great feeling to have a professor that is willing and understanding that students have lives outside of school, and actually care about their success. I am looking forward to having more classes with you in the future. You are appreciated, thank you again.
---Daniel Prisuta
I came into Dr. Cruz's class having never written any lines of code. At the end of the course I was able to develop and apply specific coding solutions to real world applications. She always provided us with immediate coding examples for each topic we discussed in class. This provided me with a better understanding of the material. Dr. Cruz always makes sure that students understand the lectures. She will take the time to review the topic, meet with the student after class, or post a video on the topic. I look forward to taking my further programming classes with her.
---- Blaine Geiger
I have loved this class since day one. Professor Cruz manages to explain very complex topics in an easy way so that you can understand them very quickly. The structured lessons with the weekly labs also helped me a lot to deepen what I had learned. Throughout the whole semester the class was very interesting and engaging. I would absolutely recommend students to take their classes with Dr. Cruz.
-----Adrian Schöch
"I will start by saying that Dr. Cruz has been such an amazing teacher! All the classwork, modules, and labs were extremely well organized, and submitted work had easy to follow rubrics. Dr. Cruz was always available to me via email and office hours. Creating your own web page may seem like a daunting task, but Dr. Cruz made learning this complicated information a breeze! Even difficult labs were easy to follow as she carefully and thoughtfully went through them and explained them in class. She is a great professor!"
----- Peyton Farmer
We would like to thank you for the amazing opportunity you have given us to work on this project with you. We havelearned how to create, implement, and design a fully functional chatbot which is something that none of us knew howto do prior to this course. Not only will we be leaving with new found knowledge, but we will be leaving with a great entryon our resumes to help with our futures. We want to thank you for offering your guidance when we needed it, but for alsoletting us make our own decisions for the development of this chatbot. Thank you for all that you have done.
---- Benjamin Morris, Quinton Quarles, Maura McNish
Professor Cruz is a great teacher. She is one of the few professors I've had that actuallyknew the material she's teaching. When there was a mistake in the class lesson, shewas able to fix this problem in class most of the time and if she didn't it would be fixedthe next day. Professor Cruz is such a great professor that most times when there wasa problem with the lesson one of the students in the class figured out the fix becauseProfessor Cruz is a great teacher.
-----Anthony Wyche
Being that I am a Health Science major, I never understood why I had to take an IT course. So, you can imagine myinterest in the material prior to the first day of class. However, your teaching is amazing. The fact that you allow opennotes for your exams, extra credit and provided me the opportunity on how to create a website from scratch with colorfulbackgrounds, media query, and etc. If I could I would spread the word about how great a professor you are. Thank you forthe experience.
---Kamaiyah Reese
Dr. Cruz’s passion for teaching was clear from the first day of class. She has a thorough understanding of the class concepts but more importantly has a genuine interest in the success of her students. She created additional presentations and videos to supplement the standard course materials and explained everything in detail in the classes. She also patiently took us step-by-step through the labs and answered any questions. She set the expectations of what we need to learn, and we are given a homework and quizzed consistently every week to make sure we are keeping up. I recommend any student to take a course with Dr. Cruz!
---William White
I learned so much in my class with Dr. Cruz. She is an expert in her field and was able to teach the class in a way that broke down the more difficult concepts in a simple way. I would always watch her Youtube videos of the material before I would read the chapter of anything due and found that this was the best way to digest the material. Her class was very organized and she was always willing to break down into detail anything we would have questions about. I would recommend anyone who has the opportunity to take Dr. Cruz classes she teaches. You will learn the material very effectively and the classes are fun and engaging.
---William Byse
After taking three separate courses with you, I can say without hesitation that you definitely put a lot of work into making sure that we as students excel. You provide us with exactly what we need to succeed in each assignment, are open to discussion and willing to help us out whenever the opportunity arises, and are very encouraging when commenting on our work in general.
This has become especially apparent through online teaching, as you seem to be doing everything you can to communicate with us; online meeting sessions, email contact, and even hour-long videos in which you elaborate on the week’s lesson so your students can better understand it.
The amount of detail you put into explaining each lesson has ended up teaching me more than what I would ever expect to learn from a single semester. To be honest, you’re probably the only professor I know who could teach me three separate programming languages in just 90 days.
The lab sessions you have us participate in during class periods help keep each meeting hands-on and interactive, and the programs we create out of them provide us reference for when we start working on the more serious projects in the class.
The last three courses I’ve taken with you I’ve often regarded as some of my favorites, because not only are they flexible and easy to manage, but they also keep my own motivation up and allow me to learn about a lot of obscure topics that I wouldn’t be able to easily learn anywhere else.
I don’t really know what else to say here, besides… thank you for everything so far! I appreciate every minute of your time you dedicate to helping us as students, and I am excited to see it continue in the future!
--Ethan Boisvert
Keene State College Testimonial
My Computer Science degree from Keene State College would not be the same without Meenalosini Vimal Cruz. Professor Cruz spearheaded many of the advanced Computer Science classes offered at Keene State as well as offered research projects for Computer Science majors.
She introduced classes like Machine Learning and Digital Image Processing which I believe having taken will be extremely advantageous in my Computer Science career going forward and I thank her for that.
-- Kolton Sumner
This is simply a letter of gratitude for your enduring support over the past year. I was lucky to have someone with your skillset join the computer science faculty. And with my previous interest in data science, I knew you’d be a good resource.
But I could not have imagined the opportunity to work so heavily in research. After conducting what is coming up on a year of research in the subject, I now know it’s what I would like to do long-term.
I foresee myself becoming a lifelong developer and advocate of AI. And with all the things I’ve learned and accomplished in the past year, I finally feel like I’m in a good place to do so. This, again, is thanks to you and our collaborative research.
I hope that publishing will reflect well on me, so I can attend graduate school for data science after next year. I also hope that the INBRE presentation goes well and we can continue our research throughout my last year at Keene State!
I look forward to new unexpected data science challenges,
-- Matthew Pittendreigh
I have really enjoyed this class and I have learned a lot already. I really appreciate your organization both in class and on Canvas. You take the time to make sure everyone is understanding what they are learning and I think that has helped us so much. We also happen to be a good group of students that like to help each other as well and the environment that you set really encourages that. Thank you so much for caring about the success of your students.
--Michael Russillo
Being a first-generation student can be hard. You'll be going into the unknown and into a lot of new stuff you'll be learning about. Dr.Cruz, has been a major help for my field of interest in computer science. In class, her enthusiasm for helping others and getting the class involved to help others is the best thing I can ask for in a class. An environment where everyone is on the same page is the best environment and Dr.Cruz does an excellent job at keeping this class interesting and beginner friendly.
--Richard Phipps
I will start by saying Professor Cruz has an unbelievable level of experience in the field of the class I’ve taken with her so far, ISCS 150. She is very succinct with descriptions and explanations and efficiently utilizes a marker and whiteboard to efficient results during lectures. I am glad she utilizes tutors so we can occasionally get more feedback outside of class. Professor Cruz has done a great job making an extremely daunting and unapproachable subject a bit easier to get started with. I’m glad I took her class early so I had a chance to see Computer Science as a possible path for me to take during college. I really like the concept of presenting our work periodically to the class as an assignment. Professor Cruz has fostered a really cooperative and positive environment and did not impede the class train of thought with any regimented oversight, which allowed students to work together to solve problems with her assistance.
--Brandon Peddle
Throughout these really odd circumstances you have made your class very straight-forward and easy to follow along with, both online and in-person. I really enjoy the use of the video lectures, as well as how you record every class in case someone misses it and needs to catch up. Also, I enjoy your assignments as they are still a challenge in terms of creativity and applying what we learn, but like I said, it’s easy to follow the instructions and it’s great to know exactly what we have to do. Thank you for being a great professor!
-- John Fisher
I find this course very new and exciting. It is my first time taking this course on website design and construction. I was nervous at the beginning of the class because I am not from a computer science background and the whole concept of HTML was new to me. However, Dr. Cruz made my learning experience much more comfortable and worth learning. I really admire Dr. Cruz's relationship with her students. She is very student-oriented, and her class is one of the most interactive classes I ever have. Even on zoom, this is the only class where students feel comfortable interacting and keeping their camera on. Her teaching motive is not to make students suffer from hard grading or hard material but to actually teach them. She ensures every student understands the learning materials and helps her student with proper guidance, constructive feedback, and tutors. She gives multiple chances in taking quizzes, which allows students to focus on learning rather than getting good grades. She is very invested and well prepared in her class, from making a video presentation to PowerPoint slides. And I am really grateful for her motivating and friendly nature towards students.
-- Benajil Roy
I have learned so much during my courses with Professor Cruz and taking her courses has really peaked my interest with learning about website design and programming.
She is always prepared with learning materials and does a great job teaching her students. I have had a great experience being in Professor Cruz’s classroom and she is always willing to help me when I get stuck.
She goes the extra mile to deliver a great education in computer science.
-- Vanessa Berrill
Dr. Vimal Cruz is one of the most passionate educators I had the privilege of learning from during my time at Keene State College, a fact made ever more apparent amidst the COVID-19 outbreak where she spent countless hours preparing online classes with step-by-step instructions, video tutorials, and links to numerous outside resources to help us better understand the principals and concepts of the course curriculum.
I had classes with Dr. Vimal Cruz in both her first and third year at KSC, and saw a marked difference in both her confidence and adaptation of her teaching style to best accommodate the needs of her students. Not only did Dr. Vimal Cruz motivate students to participate in class, an impressive feat in a climate where most students don't say a word in classroom discussions,
she also encouraged students to help one another - which as we know is a fantastic way to learn. I would absolutely recommend Computer Science students take classes with Dr. Vimal Cruz.
--Tyson St John
I have truly learned so much from Professor Cruz, I came into the course not knowing a single thing about computers. The amount of knowledge I have gained has blown my mind. The work isn’t always easy, but we all need a challenge! The workload is very doable though and gives students a good understanding of the topics the class is learning about. I have really enjoyed taking this course and having the opportunity to have Professor Cruz.
--Sara Christian
I really enjoy this class and I like how you have it set up so that you could do all the work independently if you needed. If I ever forget something we went over in class I can look back at the lab practice videos or the lectures for a refresher. I think you do a very good job teaching the class.
--Isaac Reed
Dr. Cruz is a great teacher. Her class is easy to follow and everything is explained very well. Her class is very organized and even with the current covid pandemic going on, you can stay ahead in her class. The online part is relatively the same every week, so your assignments are structured the same. Web Design & Construction taught by Dr. Cruz is great for beginners or anyone who is interested in learning more about Web Development.
-- Edin Halilovic
This class is the most organized class I have had during the COVID-19 pandemic. It doesn't seem like there's any busy work and there is plenty of time for help within the zoom classes. I enjoy the relaxed nature of the class and I don't feel dumb when I have issues with coding. I enjoy having different aspects of the weekly homework due at different times during the week and not all on one day because it forces me to get work done on different days and not procrastinate which is sometimes necessary.
-- Etter Cordelia
I have enjoyed all of Dr. Cruz's classes I have taken. Her classes typically include equal parts lecture and hands on practice which leads to better retention of the material for the students.
The work isn't always easy, but she is accessible for additional help if needed. I would take classes with Dr. Cruz again.
-- Nicholas Pearson