Raina Ames

Excellence in Teaching, 2017

Theatre and Dance

Associate professor Raina Ames is the theatre educator for theatre educators. For more than a decade, hundreds of students have benefitted from her hands-on approach in the accredited theatre education program she reimagined and now directs at UNH.

“My students learn best by doing,” says Ames, so she provides many opportunities for students to “do.” They develop and perform plays for Artsreach and Little Red Wagon, the theatre department’s touring programs, and work with children in S.T.A.R.S., the day camp Ames created that has become one of UNH’s largest summer offerings. They teach in area schools, including workshops for special needs students at Dover Middle School.

“I am most proud of the poise and self-assurance my students develop through these practical experiences,” says Ames, who is gratified to watch her students, in turn, inspire their own students. “I’m proud that they are spreading a legacy of arts education.”

For several alumni, that legacy includes trying to live up to the high bar Ames set for excellence. They cite her deep commitment to students’ individual development; her respect for difference; her ability to foster civil discourse; and her honesty, humor and big heart as characteristics they try to model in their own classrooms.

“More than anything,” one student says, “I’ve learned from professor Ames to be a collaborator with the children that I teach, as that is the spirit of creating art.”