Graduate Student Teaching Award

2019 Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Awards

These awards recognize excellence in undergraduate teaching by graduate assistants and is sponsored by the Graduate College.

Nomination Deadline:  Monday, March 2, 2020 at 5p.m.

About the Awards

Each spring, the Graduate College gives out two awards that recognize the best Teaching Assistant (TA) and Teaching Associate (TI).  The awards, sponsored by the Graduate College, are designed to encourage and reward excellence in undergraduate instruction.  Recognizing the role of Graduate Assistants (GA) as valued teaching colleagues is an important part of building our university community.  Winners receive a framed certificate commemorating their accomplishment and an honorarium of $500.

Award Criteria

The TA/TI must have taught a course for which he/she had major responsibility at any time in the 2019 calendar year. Teaching Assistants (TA) generally assist faculty with instructional responsibilities. Duties vary by discipline and program, but may include meeting with students, administering tests or exams, grading homework or exams, teaching recitation, laboratory, or discussion sessions, and other related duties. Teaching Associates (TI) generally serve as an instructor of record for a class, or leader of discussion or lab, and will have held this responsibility at any time in the 2019 calendar year. Exam proctors, graders, and past recipients of this award are not eligible.  For more detailed descriptions, please visit the Graduate College website.

Application Process

Nominations should be forwarded to the nominee’s Graduate Program Coordinator several weeks prior to the final due date, so the Coordinator has time to solicit the nominee’s materials.  The Graduate College will only accept one application per degree program for each award (the TA and the TI). In the event that more than one nomination is forwarded to the Graduate Coordinator, it is the responsibility of the program’s graduate faculty to meet to determine which nomination will be forwarded to the Graduate College.  The Graduate Coordinator will then submit one nomination to the Graduate College by the March 2, 2020 deadline.

Review Criteria

The Review committee will consider the following in ranking applicants:

• Clarity and organization of the application.
• Demonstrated thoughtfulness in teaching philosophy and pedagogical practices
• Applicant’s teaching independence and effectiveness, relative to their assigned role(s)