Prof. Christine Holmgren

It was clear to her students at Santa Monica College that Prof. Christine Holmgren cared about them. Samia Bano, then a young student, recalls long discussions during office hours, when the professor would share information, and coach her to ask better questions and to think more rationally. She was kind, compassionate, and supportive.

My mentor was Professor Christine Holmgren.

Prof. Christine Holmgren used to be a lawyer before she got into teaching. She was a most wonderful teacher, a professor of philosophy at Santa Monica College.

She really cared about her students.

I used to go see her during her office hours, and we had long discussions. When she saw how enthusiastic I was about learning, she gave me information about other books and resources so I could learn even more about the subjects that I was curious about.

She made me feel so comfortable that I could ask her any question. She taught me to ask better questions and think more clearly and rationally. She herself was such a brilliant thinker, so logical, so rational, her arguments so well-supported, so well- reasoned.

She was very kind. She didn’t give us any useless tests. All her assignments and projects were so meaningful and helped us to go deeper into learning and understanding about whatever she was teaching in class.

She was so supportive as a teacher. She made you feel she was on your side. If you ran into a problem, you got stuck, she was so willing to give you feedback, help you think through whatever it was that you needed thinking through. She was just a brilliant teacher.

After I had graduated from Santa Monica College, I went back to see her on a number of occasions. Professor Holmgren greeted me like a friend and told me to call her Christine, which is her first name. I couldn’t. I couldn’t make myself call her by her first name so I settled on calling her Professor Christine.

She treated me to lunch. She just made me feel so good about myself, like I felt I have thoughts worth sharing. I felt more intelligent, and I felt appreciated.

She was the kind of teacher who changes her students’ lives, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one she impacted in this deep way.