Gabriel Alexander Garrido-Franco, lecturer in Spanish at the University of Mississippi, is the 2026 recipient of the St. Amand Outstanding Teacher Award.
The St. Amand Outstanding Teaching Award Endowment, established by a planned gift from the estate of the late UM biology professor Wilbrod St. Amand, yearly honors a non-tenure-track faculty member who demonstrates excellence in the classroom.
Chancellor Glenn Boyce praised Garrido’s dedication and efforts both inside and away from the classroom.
“Gabriel Garrido-Franco brings a unique combination of life experience, passion and genuine connection to his classroom,” Boyce said. “His students leave his courses with a broader view of the world and a deeper confidence in themselves. That kind of teaching is exactly what this award was created to honor.”
Receiving the award is a validating moment as an educator, Garrido said.
“The chancellor told me students said I changed their lives,” Garrido said. “It’s an incredible feeling to know you made an impact.”
For Garrido, teaching is a family tradition.
His grandmother, Elba Garrido, became the first schoolteacher in her small town in Venezuela during the 1940s. Garrido notes that, every day, she traveled by mule to teach in a neighboring village.
Her passion for educating inspired generations of her family.
“My father and aunt became university professors,” Garrido said. “So that was like a pyramid that started with a lady on a mule.”
His parents, Gabriel and Lisbeth Garrido, attended graduate school at Central Texas College in Killeen, Texas, from 1979 until 1981. Afterwards they returned to their native Venezuela to become professors.
Garrido didn’t become a teacher immediately. He has lived all over the world, spending time in Vienna, as an actor at the Imperial Theater, and in Melbourne, Australia, where he operated his own DVD rental business. But the call to educate always remained, and he eventually moved to Oxford to pursue a master’s degree in modern languages.
After graduating in 2012, Garrido taught fourth grade math and Spanish in Clarksdale before returning to Ole Miss to join the faculty. He originally planned to return to Australia to teach Spanish but enjoyed his time in Oxford so much that it changed his direction.
Garrido credits the Department of Modern Languages for its support of faculty and a culture of collegiality that has helped him grow as an educator.
“You always exchange ideas,” he said. “You always learn something when you observe your colleagues teaching.”
Garrido said one of the things that fills him with pride is seeing his students apply the knowledge they’ve gained in his classes to their lives. One student went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic and used her Spanish to connect with the people she was helping. Another became a lawyer who aids Spanish-speaking immigrants.
He also feels fullfilled when he runs into a former student in Oxford who can still strike up a conversation in Spanish.
“Spanish will open doors, whether you’re a doctor, a nurse or a lawyer,” he said. “Language connects you to people you wouldn’t otherwise reach.”
Garrido, who also drives routes for Oxford-University Transit, sometimes sees his students on the bus. These conversations turn into impromptu Spanish lessons, he said.
“Those moments outside the classroom are special,” Garrido said. “You can learn anywhere, even on a bus.”
Whatever his students’ goals, Garrido hopes they give it their all, both in the classroom and in their lives.
“No matter what you do, throw everything you have into it,” he said. “So you can look at yourself in the mirror and say, ‘I gave it everything.’
“That’s my message to my students.”
To make a gift to any of the three St. Amand endowments, send a check with the endowment’s name noted in the memo line, to the University of Mississippi Foundation, 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS 38655 or online here: St. Amand Biology Labs Endowment, St. Amand Outstanding Teaching Award Endowment or the Georgia St. Amand Laboratory Teaching-Assistant Award Endowment.
For information on supporting the Department of Biology in the College of Liberal Arts, contact Delia Childers, associate director of development, at dgchilde@olemiss.edu or 662-915-3086.
For more information on providing ongoing support to Ole Miss after your lifetime, click here or contact Littlecott at marcplan@olemiss.edu or 662-915-6625.
By Patrick Smith/UM MarCom