Diego Soto Hernando, Departmental Language Coordinator at the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies the King’s Education Awards 2021.

The King's Education Awards are a student-led awards process which recognises and celebrates the outstanding teaching at King's College London. The awards have been running since 2002, and now have over 200 winners from the thousands of nominations received over the past 16 years.

Diego won the King's Education Award for Teaching Excellence.

Commenting on their win, Diego said: “It’s an honour to receive an award that comes from the students, really. I was very pleased to read the nominations, which I think show the lively and friendly atmosphere we have at the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, which I’m part of. I think we have created a sense of community this year by supporting each other, staff and students. I think that’s reflected in the nominations and it’s great to see how the students feel about it. It’s funny how some students mentioned that our classes together helped them feel less alone during the pandemic. It’s funny because I actually felt the same way: I myself felt less alone in the pandemic thanks to our classes, and I thank my students for it. This goes to them. We have the best students.”

On awarding Diego, the Faculty said: “Diego received multiple nominations citing his amazing classes and a high commitment to improving his module, providing engaging, fun classes that students looked forward to attending, despite the challenges of online learning during a pandemic. One student said: "I believe that Diego should receive this award because of his commitment to bettering our experience. Online learning has been hard, but he has tried his best to create a sense of community and his lessons are a breath of fresh air. He has included very interesting topics but also discussed very relevant things such as mental health, which was not necessarily in the set topics. His openness helps others to open up and facilitated important conversations that made everyone else in the class feel less alone. It is clear he spends a lot of time preparing the lesson material to make it exciting and relevant, which I really appreciate as it shows his commitment to improving our language and general skills. Overall, the positivity and bubbly personality he brings fosters a real sense of community and makes each class fun and interesting. Diego: if you’re reading this, thank you!"

For further information about the King's Education Awards, please visit the King’s Academy web pages.

(Aug 2022 - The Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies is now the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures).