Abbey Professor Selected for Advanced Placement Program Reading — Coté Assists With College Board’s AP Exams

BELMONT, NC —- Belmont Abbey College’s Dr. Nathalie Coté was selected this summer to participate in the annual reading and scoring of the College Board’s AP® Examinations in Psychology.

"It was wonderful to spend a week with people who love teaching psychology as much as I do,” says Dr. Coté, an associate professor and current chair of the psychology department at Belmont Abbey College.

“The opportunity for college professors to mingle with high school teachers is rare, and I found it valuable. By scoring AP essays myself, I reassure myself that high-scoring Advanced Placement students do in fact understand psychology as well as college students who have taken my Introductory Psychology course, and I can assure colleagues of the validity of the AP program,” says Coté.

According to Coté, the group of Readers included textbook authors, teaching award winners, and even a professor she had while attending college 20 years ago. For a week, the group spent every day grading essays and every evening in professional development or meeting new friends and sharing teaching tips.

The AP Program, sponsored by the College Board, each year gives more than one million capable high school students an opportunity to take rigorous college-level courses and examinations and, based on their exam performance, can receive credit and/or advanced placement when they enter college.

Approximately 2.1 million examinations in 19 disciplines were evaluated by over 7,500 readers from universities and high schools. Representing many of the finest academic institutions in the world, these men and women are some of the best high school and college educators in the United States and abroad.

The AP Reading is a unique forum in which academic dialogue between secondary school and college educators is fostered and strongly encouraged.

“The Reading draws upon the talents of some of the finest teachers and professors that the world has to offer,” says Trevor Packer, executive director of the Advanced Placement Program at the College Board. “It fosters professionalism, allows for the exchange of ideas, and strengthens the commitment to students and to teaching. We are very grateful for the contributions of talented educators like Dr. Coté.”

Coté, who will be celebrating her eighth year teaching at the Abbey, earned her doctorate in cognitive studies at Vanderbilt University, studying how people build mental representations based on what they read. Although she finds research interesting, she says teaching is even better. She teaches Introductory Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Neuropsychology, Testing and Assessment, Statistics, Research Methods, senior thesis, and first-year seminar. Coté is also involved in the faculty development and mentoring programs at the Abbey, and is currently pursuing an interest in ethics education.

Ranked one of the best liberal arts colleges in the South by U.S. News and World Report, Belmont Abbey College celebrates excellence and virtue steeped in its 128 year Catholic Benedictine heritage. It is home to students from over 34 states and 17 countries and welcomes everyone from any background or tradition committed to this vision of excellence and virtue. The campus consists of the College, the Monastery and the Abbey Basilica, which can be found on its sprawling 650 acres of picturesque landscape.

Just minutes from Charlotte, NC, the nation’s second largest banking center, Belmont Abbey College offers students numerous internship opportunities and career placement.

The College believes in development of the whole person – mind, body and spirit. By offering a wide array of clubs and activities including Division II athletics, theatre, publications, and study abroad, Belmont Abbey College invests in the personal growth of its students.

Founded in 1876, the College celebrates its heritage and is inspired by the Benedictine monastic tradition. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the College and Abbey Basilica greet thousands of visitors each year.

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