Professor Gaspard is one of the best professors I've ever had at Tulane. I have never met a single student who has any negative comment to say about her. In fact, I know several students who will go out of their way to comment on how truly wonderful she is. She treats her students like people and is genuinely kind and understanding towards students who may need additional help or are having a rough patch. She will go down in history as one of the teachers that never made me feel judged or pressured, and when I was going through periods of anxiety or just having a really tough time, she told me she was proud of me for getting my work done. I felt anxious and at times depressed throughout the entire semester, and her just telling me she was proud that I wrote a strong essay literally gave me strength to keep going throughout my day. I cannot emphasize this enough: she is a treasure.

This class was my favorite class I have taken at Tulane because of the environment that was created within the classroom. It was a great place to have discussions, learn, and grow in our knowledge of social policies. Professor Gaspard is so kind and understanding, which made me want to learn and pay attention in class because of the environment she created. I learned a lot about many policy areas, which broadened my knowledge and passion for everything included in the class.

This class was so incredibly fun and insightful. Prof. Gaspard definitely provides a hands on learning approach and mixes up the routine flow of the class to keep engagement and that is something I am very grateful for. She was also very understanding and kind and malleable when it came to providing extensions or even just extra guidance on assignments. The structure of the class itself was also very organized and well thought out and she made all the materials accessible on canvas in case there was a day a student was unable to attend, they could find everything they needed there. I also enjoyed how much discussion occurred, it definitely provided a lot of insight and created a small community within the class as well.

I enjoy that so much of the class gives room for students to share their own experiences or opinions about an area of policy without judgement. Many classes say they are discussion based yet the professor will speak over students or there's pressure to give a perfect answer, but this class truly fosters an open, collaborative environment where students can feel comfortable participating.

I loved the student focused part of the class where it was mainly discussion based and student taught. It made each of us push ourselves and listen to others, while also bringing together our own perspectives on each of the issues at hand. The policy mapping activities we did each week helped me to understand the intersectionality of all policy issues, and that there are many ways that everything is connected and many different options that policies can help different parts of issues.

Professor Gaspard does an excellent job of facilitating good, intellectual discussions and makes everyone feel comfortable enough to speak about things that are often uncomfortable in many other circumstances. The topics covered are interesting and relevant. Enough cannot be said about how great of a course this is and how wonderful of an instructor Professor Gaspard is.