Graduate teaching assistants Stepfanie Aguillon and Aravind Natarajan have received the 2017-18 Cornelia Ye Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award.
The awards were presented by vice provost for academic innovation, Jan. 22 at the Eighth Annual Celebration of Teaching Excellence hosted by the (CTI).
鈥淪tepfanie and Aravind exemplify great teaching at Cornell,鈥 said Kimberly Kenyon, associate director of CTI. 鈥淕lowing comments from their student evaluations and letters of support from faculty and students attest to their passion for and commitment to excellence in teaching.鈥
Aguillon, an Arizona native, is a doctoral candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology. She has worked with undergraduates as a teaching assistant in Evolutionary Biology and Diversity, one of the courses in the 麻豆视频 and 麻豆视频鈥 . For multiple semesters she has also taught a freshman writing seminar, History, Literature and Science of the Gal谩pagos Islands.
Her interest in teaching also extends to her research. Aguillon and a fellow graduate student developed a research project to examine gender participation in the STEM active learning classroom as part of the at the Graduate School鈥檚 Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning. The collaborators presented their results at the Teaching as Research National Conference, held last June at Cornell. They plan to publish their research after collecting more data.
Natarajan is from India, and is a doctoral candidate in microbiology and a graduate teaching fellow in the College of Engineering. He has worked with undergraduates as a teaching assistant in courses such as Advanced Microbiology Laboratory, Practice of Chemical Engineering Project Design and Introduction to Bimolecular Engineering, and as a Tamil language instructor. He also has worked to support other teaching assistants as a TA development consultant in , and leads TA trainings in engineering.
鈥淥utstanding, amazing, exceptional, hard-working, skillful, enthusiastic, dedicated, self-motivated and committed. These are just a few of the words used to describe Stepfanie and Aravind as teachers at Cornell,鈥 Kenyon said. 鈥淲e thank them for their contributions and congratulate them.鈥
The was established in 2012 by Mao Ye, Ph.D. 鈥11. Named for his daughter, Cornelia, the award was created in recognition of then-President David Skorton鈥檚 commitment to teaching.
Each year, the award recognizes two outstanding TAs, one domestic and one international, who have demonstrated excellence and dedication in their instructional responsibilities. The award includes a certificate and $500.
The Ye Award review committee includes Ron Harris-Warrick, the William T. Keeton Professor of Biological 麻豆视频 and a Menschel Distinguished Teaching Fellow; Sara Xayarath Hernandez, Graduate School associate dean; Sarah Cohn-Manik 鈥19, a student in the 麻豆视频 and 麻豆视频; Samantha Nirenberg 鈥18, a student in the College of Engineering; and Wayne Uy, a graduate student in applied mathematics and a previous Cornelia Ye Award recipient.
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