2016 Recognition Reception Honored 70 Graduate Students and Postdocs

The Teaching Center’s annual Recognition Reception, which took place on May 3, 2016 on the Danforth campus, honored 70 graduate students and postdocs who completed Teaching Center professional-development programs in 2015-2016. The annual event makes visible the hard work of program participants in developing a practice of reflective teaching.

Denise Leonard, PhD, Assistant Director of Academic Services, The Teaching Center, notes, “The professional-development programs we offer in the Teaching Center are outstanding because within each program students are exposed critical and timely information on teaching, learning, and career preparation.”

The reception provided a chance for multi-disciplinary conversation on teaching in a learning community of graduate students and postdocs who are passionate about teaching.

The event included a poster exhibit of projects by students in the Introduction to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning course. The posters’ research generated conversations on topics ranging from paired work to student self-assessment and problem-based learning approaches.

The first-place poster was awarded to Brian Wieliczka from Chemistry, whose research project studied the impact of the January Program, which supports underprepared students entering General Chemistry. Kate Schrumm from the Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology program was awarded second place for her poster on conducting peer-review in undergraduate courses. In third place was Bhavana Murali’s (Biology and Biomedical Sciences) poster, which explored the impact of introducing first-year undergraduates to scientific literature.

The event also included “a conversation cards” game that encouraged participants to talk across disciplines about their teaching experiences. Conversation kickstarters included discussing a teaching hero, a “dream” course, a teaching challenge or success. Cards were then submitted for a drawing, and two winners emerged with a book: Claude Steele’s Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us And What We Can Do.

Amila Weerasinghe, Physics, who was recognized for his achievement of the Practitioner level of the WU-CIRTL Program for Future Faculty in STEM (and who was a conversation card winner) offered some thoughts on the event:

The Teaching Center Recognition Reception was a great motivator for me. I was amazed to see the large number of people dedicated to make a better teaching and learning environment at WashU. Each and every poster presented a novel way to improve various aspects of teaching and learning. It was fun to talk to the fellow participants and learn more about their projects and plans. The conversation cards game was a great way to encourage everyone to talk about teaching. The recognition reception really motivates newcomers to get involved in Teaching Center activities—which happened to me, and why I am here today. I got involved in The Teaching Center programs after attending a reception few years ago!

We’d love to see you at the event next year—find out more about graduate-student and postdoctoral Teaching Center programs.

Please scroll down to see this year’s honorees.

Graduate-Student Advisory Group

Kristena Cooksey, Anthropology, 2015-2016
Fanghao Chen, East Asian Languages and Cultures, 2015-2016
Robin Girard, Romance Languages and Literatures, 2015-2016
Kenyon Gradert, English, 2014-2016
Roger Klein, Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, 2015-2016
Dale Kretz, History, 2014-2016
Toshiya Miyatsu, Psychological and Brain Sciences, 2015-2016
Patrizia Vecchi, Business, 2015-2016
Rachel Voth Schrag, Social Work, 2014-2016
Blaire Weidler, Psychological and Brain Sciences, 2015-2016
Teresa Wong, Earth and Planetary Sciences, 2014-2016

Liberman Fellowship in Teaching with Technology

Angineh Djavadghazaryans, Germanic Languages and Literatures
Simone Pfleger, Germanic Languages and Literatures
Viktoryia Schnose, Political Science

Preparation in Pedagogy (PIP)

Kendra Cherry-Allen, Movement Science
Robin Girard, Romance Languages and Literatures
Darren LaCour, Music

The Teaching Citation

Deepti Adlakha, Social Work
Andrae Banks, Social Work
Claire Class, English
Stacy Davis, Romance Languages and Literatures
Angineh Djavadghazaryans, Germanic Languages and Literatures
Alexander Eastman, Romance Languages and Literatures
Robin Girard, Romance Languages and Literatures
Jessica Joganic, Anthropology
Kelsey Klotz, Music
Dale Kretz, History
Simone Pfleger, Germanic Languages and Literatures
Viktoryia Schnose, Political Science
Aysegul Turan, Comparative Literature
Tess Thompson, Social Work
Sara Weston, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Jiemai Wu, Economics

WU-CIRTL PROGRAM FOR FUTURE FACULTY IN STEM

Community Member

David Baranger, Biology and Biomedical Sciences
Hila Ben Abraham, Computer Science and Engineering
Yuval Boneh, Earth and Planetary Sciences
Aditi Chiplunkar, Internal Medicine
Leticia Czepielewski, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Chong Duan, Chemistry
Steven Foltz, Biology and Biomedical Sciences
Luca Antonio Forte, Biology and Biomedical Sciences
Akshay Gopan, Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering
Sandra Lam, Biomedical Engineering
Alexandra Lord, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Dolonchampa Maji, Biomedical Engineering
Katherine Mann, Biology and Biomedical Sciences
James McDonald, Biology and Biomedical Sciences
Bhavna Murali, Biology and Biomedical Sciences
Suegene Noh, Biology and Biomedical Sciences
Jooyoung Park, Biology and Biomedical Sciences
Sameer Patel, Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering
Aaron Pride, Molecular Microbiology
Rachel Reid, Anthropology
Siera Stoen, Physics
Tyson Todd, Biology and Biomedical Sciences
Elizabeth Tuck, Biology and Biomedical Sciences
Ramya Vijayakumar, Biomedical Engineering
Matthew Williams, Pediatrics Nephrology
Huzeyfe Yilmaz, Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

Associate

Barbara Cascella, Chemistry
Stephen Cole, Computer Science and Engineering*
Nathan Crook, Pathology*
Sarrah Dunham-Cheatham, Earth and Planetary Sciences *
Alireza Faghaninia, Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering
Tiffanie Fowlkes, Biology and Biomedical Sciences*
Cheryl Immethun, Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering *
Joshua Sokoloski, Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
Teresa Wong, Earth and Planetary Sciences*

*Also completed Community Member this year.

Practitioner

Karla Bergonzi, Biomedical Engineering **
Mithun Chakraborty, Computer Science and Engineering*
Justin Lyle, Chemistry**
Lenny Ramsey, Biology and Biomedical Sciences**
Xinxin Wang, Physics**
Amila Weerasinghe, Physics**
Patrick Wright, Biomedical Engineering**

*Also completed Associate
**Also completed Community Member and Associate

WU-STAR Intern

Brian Wieliczka, Chemistry*

*Also completed Community Member