Hi Michael,
I found your website by putting the phrase "recommendation letter appreciation gift" into Google. After reading your blog on writing recommendation letters I felt compelled to email you and ask you my question. A former professor of mine wrote a recommendation letter on my behalf for a graduate scholarship application. I want to send a gift of appreciation with my thank you note. We are both members of the same financial association; would their logo on a mug be an appropriate gift? (Incidentally, it is not the organization giving the scholarship.)

Thanks for your help!
Warm regards, Jessica Smith, CFP

Hi Jessica!

Thanks for writing...and posing such an interesting question! I think the truth is that a former professor will be happy to receive almost any gift you send, because they rarely receive such things from their students (it's true!), and because the kindness of the gesture -- along that thank you letter you mentioned -- will often mean more to them than anything else. Teachers are often rewarded simply by teaching and having their students achieve success. But a personal touch in a gift is icing on the cake and you shouldn't hold back. The mug sounds fine; especially if you think it will bring a smile and a memory of you to the prof's face when they drink their morning coffee or while they're sitting in a boring staff meeting. Heck, if you are close with your prof, you could even buy matching mugs -- one for you, one for them -- to signify your newly forged professional bond as colleagues in that financial association you mentioned.

I've received some interesting gifts in my day, for a variety of reasons (graduation, rec letters, end-of-term goodbyes). The typical gift is a book or a pen, because I teach English. But I really treasure the creative gifts the most. I've had students give me paintings or other pieces of art they've made, and I display them proudly in my office. I've received DVDs from films I've mentioned in class, or actual music by the student, like a mix tape, of songs related to a piece of their writing. Office-based gifts are great choices, but they don't have to be so corporate or official as, say, a paperweight or picture frame. A student once got me a Xmas tree ornament that reminded her of a Leonard Trawick poem called "At the Flying School" that I taught in our class together. Another student gave me one of those glass mannequin heads that often display hats, just because they thought I would enjoy the weirdness of it. (I did). I've got lots of Halloween decorations (my favorite, a gargoyled door knocker that screams in pain when you knock it), stuffed animals in the shape of flesh-eating viruses (not joking!), and even action figures from horror movies, like The Thing. A pair of graduate students put their money together and bought me a lamp that realistically looks like a human skull. As a horror writer, I appreciate these offbeat tokens of affection and though you'll never see me playing with an action figure, I do enjoy the fact that the students gave me something personal (and my house is starting to look like an abattoir!)

I'm not big on decorating trees, but I put that Xmas ornament I mentioned on my tree every year and it reminds me that my teaching does matter in the world outside of the hallways of the school. And I use that glass head as a prop for a poetry writing exercise in my writing class ("Write an extended metaphor for this glass head, being as descriptive as possible."). I'm not sure if a corporate-styled mug (even if that logo is for the school itself) will inspire such creative uses, but I appreciated these personal touches a great deal. If a gift inspires me to be more creative in the classroom, or actually provides me with a prop I can use in a future class, I'm overjoyed. But I'm just as happy to just receive a handshake, thank you note, kind word on an evaluation, a recommendation letter for my files, or even just a knowing smile.

-- Mike Arnzen

p.s. for readers of Pedablogue....
Thank you cards are always a good idea when a prof does work for you that they aren't paid to do. Obviously, gifts should never be traded for grades or used to ply a prof for favoritism. They should usually be given only during sanctioned events (like, say a club Xmas party), a holiday, or a goodbye present after grades have been turned in. A good time to exchange gifts is immediately following a thesis defense or somewhere in the auditorium/grounds (or even at a graduation party) immediately following graduation.

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