Javier Vallecillo is recommended for an internship position by his professor Lisa Suter. Suter describes Javier as a thoughtful, organized, and serious student who consistently produces high-quality work. As evidenced by his strong performance in Suter's classes, Javier has strong analytical, written, and oral communication skills. He is also able to work well in teams and provide leadership, as shown by his group producing the best project in the class. Suter believes Javier would be an asset to the organization.

1. February 7, 2014
Dear Rose DiMattio,
I am writing today to recommend a current student of mine, Javier Vallecillo, for your
open position of Financial Institution Intern (Pathways Intern). Javier is a very gifted, serious,
smart young man who would be an asset to your organization in every way.
Javier and I met in the fall of last year (2013) when he signed up to take an academic
writing class I was teaching: First-Year Writing 101 (FYW 101). He is currently enrolled in the
second half of the year-long writing sequence (FYW 102), and he has elected to take my class
again. One of the first things that struck me about Javier was how thoughtful and organized he
was: always asking detailed questions about assignments and what precisely I was looking to
see. He immediately seemed a far more serious student than the majority of students I have at
UT. Other students arrive seemingly in search of our beaches or nightlife; Javi came to get a real
education, and the difference in his attitude was something I remarked on again and again. He
made one of the highest As in the class, writing one careful paper after another, and he never
missed one class all term or was late one single time. (In our university’s culture, this is rare.)
Javier forwarded me the job description of the intern that you are looking for. It seems
you need someone with analytical ability, strong written and oral communications skills,
someone who can work well with a team, can use time wisely, and who has leadership initiative.
I can honestly say that Javier embodies all of these characteristics. We do a lot of analysis in my
writing classes—textual analysis, rhetorical analysis, etc.—and he excelled at these, as evidenced
by his final grade. Unlike many of his peers, Javier is able to speak easily and intelligently in
class when I ask discussion questions. He doesn’t seem self-conscious about offering what he
thinks to the rest of the class, and it’s always something worth hearing. Finally, in the last unit of
the course, I have my classes do a group film project. It’s a large and difficult assignment, with
written as well as film components, and it’s a tricky target as a result. Javier’s group produced
the best film by far out of my three classes (top out of 18 projects). When I asked how they’d
pulled it off, Javier and his teammates said they had scrapped several project ideas and even
early film drafts, because “they just weren’t good enough.” The final film involved a technology
I had never seen a student group use before in 15 years of teaching. Personally, I thought to
myself that the project was clearly evidence of Javier’s leadership abilities—to inspire his peers
not to settle for what would get by, but to do their utmost.
I believe you will be delighted if you hire this young man. He’s definitely going places!
If I can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me. My cell phone is (937)-
657-3210 or you can reach me at my work email: lsuter@ut.edu any time.
Best regards,
Lisa Suter

2. Lisa Suter, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of English and Writing
The University of Tampa