9th Annual Center for Teaching and Learning Graduate Student and Postdoc Recognition Reception
The Center for Teaching and Learning hosted its 9th Annual Graduate Student and Postdoc Recognition Reception virtually on Tuesday, May 4, 2021.
The event recognizes students and postdocs from Washington University in St. Louis and Washington University School of Medicine who participated in the Center for Teaching and Learning’s professional development programs in 2020-2021. The reception highlights participants’ commitment to pedagogical training and reflective teaching practices.
This year, attendees participated in a Word Cloud activity at the beginning of the program. They were asked to type one word that described their experience working with the CTL this year. Their contributions are shown in the visual at the beginning of this article.
Honorees included participants in the EPIC Learning Community, an interdisciplinary program for graduate students in their first years at Washington University who are getting ready for or participating in their initial teaching experiences, as well as members of the Graduate Student Advisory Council, a group that helps the Center for Teaching and Learning develop programming for graduate students and postdocs and coordinates monthly professional development events.
Students had overwhelmingly positive feedback for the EPIC Learning Community program:
“I would strongly recommend the EPIC program to anyone interested in improving their teaching ability. Dr. Julia Johnson and Dr. Meg Gregory have done an amazing job to create an atmosphere which is both welcoming and stimulating. I am more competent and confident in my teaching ability for having been in the EPIC program,” said Eric Husmann, a graduate student in the Center for Aerosol Science and Engineering (CASE) at Washington University in St. Louis.
“I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to participate in EPIC starting in spring of my first year as a PhD student at WashU. Being in a small department left me seeking interactions with people in other departments, and EPIC truly delivered on building a strong sense of community. I loved being able to come into a space that provided us with room to process our experiences, develop creativity around teaching, and discuss some of the most important work we will do as doctoral students: serve as instructors,” said Rachel Martin, a graduate student in the Department of Education at Washington University in St. Louis.
“Throughout my time in EPIC I have time and again seen that being part of the program has dramatically helped my teaching, as well as made me think about important things that had previously not been on my radar,” said Rachel Kuzma, a graduate student in Biological Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis.
Other groups honored included participants in Preparation in Pedagogy, a workshop-intensive professional development program for graduate students and postdocs, and Teaching Citation, a teaching-intensive professional-development program designed to help PhD students develop teaching experience and expertise in a multidisciplinary learning community.
“Even though I have been teaching for years, I have never had the opportunity for formal training in pedagogies. The CTL professional development program equipped me not only with an array of new strategies and ways of thinking about teaching purpose, but also with confidence in the things I had been intuitively doing well already. This is a program where the instructors practice what they preach – so I wasn’t just hearing about pedagogical theory – I was experiencing it as applied within the class itself. Even though I have never taught on Zoom before, I have come away with an experiential understanding of what works, when, and how, including a sense of just how many innovative tools there are to enrich virtual teaching when appropriately applied. To finish off the Preparation in Pedagogy level, I developed a statement of teaching philosophy under Dr. Denise Leonard’s experienced coaching. The opportunity for one-on-one feedback and reflection was the professional development I didn’t know I needed, and I have come away with a polished product that I can use in future job applications,” said Julie Spray, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate in the Division of Public Health Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine.
“The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) has played an integral role in my graduate education. It gave me the opportunity to learn new skills that went beyond the goals of my graduate program. I learned to communicate my science effectively, employ evidence-based teaching strategies, and take meaningful actions to foster inclusivity. The CTL staff was extremely supportive at all stages of my teaching journey from introducing me to effective pedagogical methods to guiding me through writing a teaching philosophy statement. Thanks to the mentorship available at the CTL, I can honestly say that I was able to maximize my graduate experience and that I am ready to take on future challenges as a post-doctoral teaching fellow,” said Juvenal Lopez, a graduate student in the Department of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis who participated in the Citation program.
The event also honored participants in various levels of the Professional Development in Teaching Program, provides formalized training in pedagogy for Washington University graduate students and postdocs from across all disciplines. A number of levels including Community Member, Associate, Innovator, Practitioner, and Scholar, provide multiple opportunities for involvement.
The introductory level, Community Member, introduces grad students and postdocs to effective research-based pedagogical strategies through participation in Center for Teaching and Learning workshops and how to apply these strategies while teaching. Other levels of the program allow grad students and postdocs to take advanced-level workshops and offer consultations with Center for Teaching and Learning staff. They also help participants write and revise a teaching philosophy statement and gain hands-on teaching experience.
The reception also honored students from the Introduction to SoTL seminar, which is designed to support graduate students and postdocs who are interested in deepening their involvement in and understanding of educational research. The seminar is offered each spring. Students typically present posters of their projects at the reception.
“It was a wonderful experience to apply learning from the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning course and prior trainings from the CTL as I implemented an educational research study with Max Lyon and in collaboration with Dr. Johnson. In our study, we sought to understand how graduate and undergraduate students worked together on STEM research during the COVID pandemic and how technology can intentionally be used to promote equity and access to STEM research. A manuscript describing the study was accepted to CBE Life Sciences Education. Furthermore, informed by the results of this study, I designed and co-taught a virtual engineering research course which we offered to students enrolled in the WashU Prison Education Project. Participating in programming through the CTL was an important component of my professional development as a doctoral student and preparing me for my career following graduation,” said Julie Speer, a graduate student in Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.
Congratulations, all! See below for a full list of honorees.
Graduate Student Advisory Council
Zoe Clapacs, BME
Audrey Dang, EECE
Rosie Dutt, Imaging Science
Emily Evers, Social Work (Public Health)
Dan Fister, Music
Tyler Gahrs, Germanic Languages and Literatures
Jordan Hale, Political Science
Zhiyuan Meng, Romance Languages and Literatures (French)
Megan Michie, MSTP
Lacy Murphy, Art History
Juanma (Juan Manuel) Ramirez, Romance Languages and Literatures (Spanish)
Nadia Sae-lim, Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPSc)
Oyku Uner, Psychological and Brain Sciences
EPIC
Zoe Ang, Political Science
Bridget Bey, Anthropology
Jayde Homer, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Eric Husmann, Energy Environmental and Chemical Engineering (EECE)
Kathryn Judson, Anthropology
Rachel Kuzma, Anthropology
Dain Lee, Economics
Rachel Martin, Education
Heather Neal, Occupational Therapy (Rehabilitation and Participation Science)
Alexandra Sacco, Anthropology
Sarah Swiston, DBBS (Evolution Ecology and Population Biology)
Emily Thompson, Art History and Archaeology
Community Member – Professional Development in Teaching Program
Mahliyah Adkins-Threats, DBBS (Developmental Regenerative and Stem Cell Biology)
Maria Altepeter, Philosophy (PNP)
Samantha Barrick, DBBS (Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology)
Violet Brown, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Anna Damato, DBBS (Neurosciences)
Mary Danielson, Chemistry
Rebecca Dehner-Armand Eshkiki, Comparative Literature
Rosie Dutt, Imaging Science
Lubov Ezerskiy, DBBS (Neurosciences)
Johnny WC Fang, Education
Elena Farel, Music
Kate Farley, Anthropology
Lauren Fowler, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Tyler Frank, Social Work (Public Health)
Karl Friedrichsen, DBBS (Neurosciences)
Jake Funkhouser, Anthropology
David Henderson, DBBS (Evolution Ecology and Population Biology)
Weiyan (Clair) Huang, Mathematics
Eric Husmann, Energy Environmental and Chemical Engineering
Victoria Ismail, DBBS (Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology)
Chhavi Jain, Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPSc)
Julie James, Art History
Joonmo Kang, Social Work (Public Health)
Shivanti Kariyawasam, Occupational Therapy (Rehabilitation and Participation Science)
Xiaoyu Ke, Philosophy (PNP)
Andrea Kennedy, Social Work (Public Health)
Allison Korinek, Interdisciplinary Program In Humanities
Jenna Krizan, DBBS (Neurosciences)
Amanda Kube, Computer Science and Engineering (CSE)
Gregory Ledingham, Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPSc)
Gina Lewin, DBBS (Evolution Ecology and Population Biology)
Sophia Li Occupational Therapy, (Rehabilitation and Participation Science)
Yi-Ling Lin, Anthropology
Maryssa Loehr, EECE
Lorenzo Lones, DBBS (Neurosciences)
Atzimba Martinez, Mathematics and Statistics
Molly McLay, Social Work (Public Health)
Hailey Meyer, Chemistry
Megan Michie, MSTP
Bethany Morgan, Germanic Languages and Literatures
Nathan Morris, History
Ashley Nielsen, Medicine
Juan Manuel Ramirez, Romance Languages and Literatures
Stephen Reaugh, English
Eugen Resendiz Bontrud, Social Work (Public Health)
Astrid Rodriguez Velez, DBBS (Molecular Biology)
Jeremy Ryan, Chemistry
Mali Sati, Occupational Therapy (Rehabilitation and Participation Science)
Yeganeh Sekhavati, Anthropology
Ruth Son, Chemistry
Julie Spray, Medicine
Laurel Taylor, East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALC)
Alexndra Uchdorf, Occupational Therapy (Rehabilitation and Participation Science)
Niko Verdecias, Social Work (Public Health)
Mia Vogel, Social Work (Public Health)
Najjuwah Walden, Social Work
Haochen Wang, History
Christopher Weatherly, Social Work (Public Health)
Andrew Wessel, Chemistry
Jinping Yang, Chemistry
Wolfgang Zober, Physics
Associate – Professional Development in Teaching Program
Maria Altepeter, Philosophy (PNP)
Lara Braverman, Chemistry
Violet Brown, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Nan-Hsu Chen, History
Samuel Chung, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Maria Cimpean, DBBS (Immunology)
Akilah Collins-Anderson, Social Work (Public Health)
Anna Damato, DBBS (Neurosciences)
Darejan (Daji) Davlishvili, Social Work (Public Health)
Rebecca Dehner-Armand Eshkiki, Comparative Literature
Rosie Dutt, Imaging Science
Lubov Ezerskiy, DBBS (Neurosciences)
Elena Farel, Music
Daniel Fister, Music
Jake Funkhouser, Anthropology
David Henderson, DBBS (Evolution Ecology and Population Biology)
Yiran Hou, DBBS (Molecular Genetics and Genomics)
Victoria Ismail, DBBS (Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology)
Madelyn Jackstadt, Chemistry
Chhavi Jain, Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPSc)
Joonmo Kang Social Work (Public Health)
Shivanti Kariyawasam, Occupational Therapy (Rehabilitation and Participation Science)
Andrea Kennedy, Social Work (Public Health)
Jeffrey Konrad, Movement Science (Physical Therapy)
Allison Korinek, Interdisciplinary Program In Humanities
Jenna Krizan, DBBS (Neurosciences)
Amanda Kube, Computer Science Engineering
Abhilasha Kumar, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Savannah Larimore, Sociology
Gregory Ledingham, Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPSc)
Gina Lewin, DBBS (Evolution Ecology and Population Biology)
Sophia Li, Occupational Therapy (Rehabilitation and Participation Science)
Zachary Markow, Biomedical Engineering (BME)
Molly McLay, Social Work (Public Health)
Hailey Meyer, Chemistry
Megan Michie, MSTP
Bethany Morgan, Germanic Languages and Literatures
Kayla Nygaard, DBBS (Molecular Genetics and Genomics)
Feini (Sylvia) Qu, Medicine
Laura Quinones Camacho, Medicine
Juan Manuel Ramirez, Romance Languages and Literatures
Stephen Reaugh, English
Eugen Resendiz Bontrud, Social Work (Public Health)
Astrid Rodriguez Velez, DBBS (Molecular Biology)
Jarunetr (Nadia) Sae-Lim, Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPSc)
Mali Sati, Occupational Therapy (Rehabilitation and Participation Science)
Trey Scott, DBBS (Evolution Ecology and Population Biology)
Yeganeh Sekhavati, Anthropology
Julie Spray, Medicine
Matthew Straub, Chemistry
Eylul Tekin, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Niko Verdecias, Social Work (Public Health)
Mia Vogel, Social Work (Public Health)
Nathan Wagner, Mathematics and Statistics
Najjuwah Walden, Social Work (Public Health)
Di Wang, Comparative Literature
Christopher Weatherly, Social Work (Public Health)
Jinping Yang, Chemistry
Wolfgang Zober. Physics
Teaching Citation
Henry Chai, Computer Science and Engineering (CSE)
Kristena Cooksey, Anthropology
Rosie Dutt, Imaging Science
Lubov Ezerskiy, DBBS
Elena Farel, Music
Andrew Foell, Social Work
Marina Gross, Psychological and Brain Sciences
David Henderson, DBBS (Evolution, Ecology, and Population Biology)
Amanda Kube, Computer Science and Engineering
Abhilasha Kumar, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Juvenal Lopez, DBBS (Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis)
Maximilian Lyon, DBBS (Molecular Biology)
Justin Miller, DBBS (Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology)
Xiangfeng Niu, Chemistry
Nicole Rockweiler, DBBS (Computational and Systems Biology)
Julie Speer, Biomedical Engineering (BME)
Matthew Straub, Chemistry
Catherine Rongxiang Tang, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Eylul Tekin, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Oyku Zeynep Uner, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Mia Vogel, Public Health
Kingsley Wabara, Business
Di Wang, Comparative Literature
Preparation in Pedagogy (PiP)
Brian Earley, DBBS (Molecular Genetics and Genomics)
Shivanti Kariyawasam, Occupational Therapy (Rehabilitation and Participation Science)
Sophia Li, Occupational Therapy (Rehabilitation and Participation Science)
Meagan Pilar, Social Work (Public Health)
Mali Sati, Occupational Therapy (Rehabilitation and Participation Science)
Julie Spray, Medicine
Practitioner Level – Professional Development in Teaching Program
Henry Chai, Computer Science and Engineering (CSE)
Julie Speer, Biomedical Engineering (BME)
Oyku Zeynep Uner, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Kingsley Wabara, Business
Scholar Level – Professional Development in Teaching Program
Julie Speer, Biomedical Engineering (BME)
Kingsley Wabara, Business
