Graduate Teaching Awards

Graduate student teachers do a superb job in the classroom while honing their skills to become the next generation of college and university faculty.

carrie eaton, a doctoral candidate in mathematics, has made significant contributions to the department. She created a formal training seminar for graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) and has co-taught the course for the past two years. Last fall, she organized a group of experienced GTAs to mentor first-year GTAs. In addition to this, Eaton created a teaching certificate program, which includes coursework, teaching experience, contribution to the community of teachers and the development of a teaching portfolio. Though she has not been in a class with undergraduates in a while, she has made a significant impact to the quality of teaching by other graduate students.

jesse graves is a doctoral student in English and serves as director of composition for the department. He recently designed and developed an innovative 100-level English course focused on music and culture, as well as an upper-level course, “Introduction to Poetry Writing.” His commitment to teaching may be best shown in his outreach work with area schools and K–12 teachers. He served as a co-coordinator of last summer’s Stokely Workshop on the Teaching of Writing, and he works with UT’s Young Writers’ Institute every spring. His nominator says Graves shows “knowledge, preparation and dedication, as well as an ability to engage a wide range of students—both the brightest and the struggling—and an ability to help them learn.”

sarah hillyer, a doctoral student in sports studies, brings a professional and objective manner to her courses, which often present sensitive issues regarding race, gender, sexuality, religion and politics associated with sports. Additionally, her extensive international experiences working with Sport for Life Peace Camps have helped her develop and teach a special topics course, “Women in Sports: A Global Perspective.” Her department head says that her “mastery of teaching techniques and methods is able to engage students in dialog they never thought possible.”

STACY MASTROLIA, a doctoral student in accounting, has taught accounting since 2005, and her reputation and student evaluation summaries are nothing short of incredible. Her department head says she is “bright, attentive to her students and delivers the material very effectively.” Much of this may be due in part to Mastrolia’s work experience, which includes serving as director of finance for Electrolux, director of worldwide accounting for Scientific Atlanta and director of accounting for Fidelity Investments. Because of this, she is able to bring extensive professional, real-world examples to her students—making a difficult topic teachable.