UB's Graduate School and the Graduate Student Association honored 26 graduate teaching assistants Friday for outstanding teaching performances at UB.
Twenty-two TAs were given Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching Awards, and four TAs received honorable mentions. Full-time graduate students who are involved in a degree program and who have taught a course for one year were also eligible for the award.
"The great teacher inspires, and having you here inspires us," said Kerry Grant, dean of the Graduate School, during the ceremony at UB's Center for the Arts.
Faculty members nominated TAs from their departments for consideration by Grant, who served as the event's host. Grant said nominees were chosen based on their ability to teach and mentor students, as well as academic goals they set in the classroom.
Nominees were judged on a personal statement describing their approach to educating students, a list of their teaching history, a syllabus detailing the course they are currently teaching and ways in which they enrich the educational process beyond the standard methods of teaching.
Nishant Mishra received an award for his work as an industrial engineering TA and was commended for holding daily recitations for his students over spring break, which several students attended.
Mishra said the recitations were helpful to his students, but he downplayed any personal sacrifice. "I was going to be here anyways," he said.
Edward Kasprzak, a mechanical and aerospace engineering TA who received an award, said his goal in teaching is to bring students up to his level of understanding.
"The sense that not just I know the stuff, but they know it," Kasprzak said. "I don't want them leaving the class thinking, 'Wow, he knows his stuff, I have no idea.'"
Grant gave words of encouragement to the award recipients and also offered them advice for their careers in teaching.
"The day you say 'Ah, I've done this a hundred times,' is the day you've lost what got you here," said Grant.
Darlene Cannon, a junior business major, said she appreciates the value of TAs and has learned a lot from some of them.
"They give more than what you get in a 50-minute lecture," she said. "A lot of them are helpful in getting more out of the classroom."
Distinguished Teaching Professor J. Ronald Gentile from the Department of Counseling, School and Educational Philosophy served as an honorary speaker at the event. Gentile discussed ways in which he enriched his own teaching during the duration of his career at UB.
For example, he said he took undergraduate courses to better understand his students.
"You need to keep yourself in the mindset of a student," Gentile said. "A lot of times we forget this, and then we say, 'Our students are getting dumber and dumber every year,' and it's not true."
- Additional reporting by George Zornick
