Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Awards
The annual Outstanding Graduate Student TA or Instructor Award, instituted in 1999, recognizes graduate student instructors and TAs who demonstrate excellence in the classroom or teaching laboratory. This award is for exceptional teachers/TAs and is separate from the Graduate Student Union’s teaching awards.
A department may nominate up to 5% of its total number of unique individual graduate student teachers/TAs for the 2016-17 school year. Graduate students who served in multiple semesters count as one unique individual. The cap of 5% need not be filled every year. Nominees should have taught or played an instructional role in the 2016 calendar year or the 2016-2017 academic year. Every graduate student nominated will receive an award, thus the Kaneb Center encourages the nomination of only truly excellent candidates.
Because a graduate student instructor can have more than one role in the classroom, we will accept more than one nomination for the same student during his or her tenure at Notre Dame.
Award
The award consists of a certificate from the Kaneb Center and Graduate School, a letter documenting the award for the graduate student’s file, a $100 honorarium, and an invitation to a formal dinner hosted by the Kaneb Center and the Graduate School to be held in April.
Suggested Selection Criteria
(only the nomination form needs to be sent to the Kaneb Center)
• Demonstrated commitment to excellence in teaching
• Taught or held a teaching-related position for at least 2 semesters by Spring 2017
• Excellent student evaluations (CIFs, unofficial evaluations, or student letters)
• Faculty recommendation letters
• Personal teaching statement from the applicant
• Observation of classroom teaching by a faculty mentor
Past award recipients
The nomination letter and form are sent to both the chair and the director of graduate studies in your department by the end of February. Every graduate student nominated by the department will receive an award, thus the Kaneb Center encourages the nomination of only truly excellent candidates.
