Patrick Cho and Marlee Shaffer have received 2021 Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Awards from the Notre Dame Graduate School and the Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning.
Students are nominated by faculty in their department. Each receives a certificate, a letter documenting the award, and an honorarium.
Cho worked as a teaching assistant in the CE-20110 Planet Earth course. He oversaw three of the four weekly laboratory sections, which each hosted between 15 and 20 undergraduates. He also led weekly tutorial sessions for students and supervised extra laboratory sessions to help students who had missed their assigned sections due to pandemic-related issues.
“Patrick did not shy away from student questions,” said Antonio Simonetti, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and earth sciences. “He was extremely engaging and approachable. He also was professional, dependable, and I hope to work with him again.”
Shaffer served as a teaching assistant for the CE-20150 Statistics/AME-20221 Mechanics 1 course. She worked with students on in-class exercises, provided one-on-one and small group support to students outside of class, and assisted with the development and grading of student exams.
“This course is particularly challenging for undergraduates as it is the first course in their major,” said Ashley Thrall, the Myron and Rosemary Noble Associate Professor of Structural Engineering. “Marlee‘s high energy, empathy for students, and positive attitude were essential to the success of the course and its students.”
— Nina Welding, College of Engineering