The Graduate School honored Kevin Chauncey, MA English, and Xiaoxue (Lisa) Chen, Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, as 2018’s top graduate teaching assistants (TA).
The Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award recognizes students nominated by faculty supervisors for their work as teaching assistants. The awards, presented at the Doctoral and Master’s levels, recognize outstanding and innovative teaching techniques.
For 2018, there were 21 Graduate Teaching Assistant nominees.
Master's award recipient Kevin Chauncey supported Liberal Studies courses under Dr. Alan Rauch, Professor of English. "Kevin was one of the most dedicated graduate students with whom I have ever worked,” Dr. Rauch said. “He will be remembered by the students as someone who made their courses come alive and who motivated them to greater levels of curiosity, thoughtfulness, and intellectual rigor."
Lisa Chen supported labs in Mechanical Engineering. "Lisa is the best teaching assistant I have ever had,” said Mechanical Engineering Professor Terry Xu. “With strong self-motivation, superior teaching skills, and outstanding student evaluations, she worked on every subtle detail of the teaching materials, revising labs, serving as lead lab TA, and training other TAs.”
Graduate Teaching Assistants play an important role, assisting department chairpersons, faculty members, and other professional staff by performing teaching or teaching-related duties, including teaching lower level courses, developing teaching materials, preparing and giving examinations, and grading examinations or papers.
Dr. Judith Krauss coordinates efforts to support graduate teaching assistants through the Center for Graduate Life, including Graduate Teaching Assistant training offered at the start of the Fall and Spring semesters. She also offers workshops on a variety of teaching-related issues each semester.
Graduate students interested in obtaining a graduate research or teaching assistantship should contact their academic department directly. More information about administrative assistantship opportunities is available on the Graduate School’s Funding web pages.