College Graduate Students Receive Outstanding Teaching Awards

For their outstanding teaching work, two UNC Charlotte graduate students from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences have received the 2015 Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Awards from the Graduate School and Center for Graduate Life.

Hannah Peach, a student in the Health Psychology doctoral program, received the award in the doctoral student category. Jessica Morton, an English master’s degree student, received the award for a master’s degree student.

“The experience of working as a graduate teaching assistant was so fulfilling,” Morton said. “I’m now seriously considering a career in teaching.”

The awards initiative recognizes a doctoral student and a master’s student from among students nominated by their faculty supervisors for their work as teaching assistants. These two separate awards allow recognition of the different types of tasks and demands placed upon graduate teaching assistants at each level.

Nominees must submit applications with original classroom materials, undergraduate students’ evaluations, letters of recommendation, a teaching philosophy, and other evidence of their skill in the craft of teaching and their commitment to improving student learning.

A faculty panel selected the recipients from nine doctoral student nominees and four master’s student nominees. Nominees came from programs in Public Policy, Organizational Science, Health Psychology, Biology, Geography and Urban Regional Analysis, Curriculum and Instruction, Infrastructure and Environmental Systems, English, and Kinesiology.

“The Graduate School takes seriously its commitment to support teaching excellence,” said Tom Reynolds, associate provost and dean of the Graduate School. “Graduate students need experience teaching and we need them to be effective in that role. By offering training, workshops and a credit bearing course, the Graduate School strives to ensure that graduate teaching assistants learn from the experience and are successful in their teaching.” More information is available on the Center for Graduate Life’s Teaching Initiative on its website.

Pictured with Katherine Hall-Hertel, Associate Dean of the Graduate School and Director of the Center for Graduate Life, are Peach (top photo) and Morton (bottom photo.)

Words and images courtesy of Karla Stanchina, The Graduate School