Graduate Student Teaching Recognition Ceremony

The CTE has hosted the Graduate Student Teaching Recognition Ceremony at the close of the spring semester since 2016. This event highlights and honors the important work that graduate student teachers perform in advancing the practice of teaching at BC. The ceremony combines the Donald J. White Teaching Excellence Awards for Graduate Student Teachers with the recognition of graduates from the CTE’s Apprenticeship in College Teaching (ACT) program. Both White Award recipients and those who have completed the ACT program are presented with their certificates by the Vice Provost for Faculties before an audience of family, friends, and faculty mentors. The ceremony is followed by a reception. The 2024 Graduate Student Teaching Recognition Ceremony will be held on Friday, April 26, 2024 at 4:00 pm in the Heights Room in Corcoran Commons.

Accommodation Requests

The Center for Teaching Excellence is committed to providing equal access to its events and programs. Individuals with disabilities who anticipate needing accommodations or who have questions about physical access may contact centerforteaching@bc.edu.

Two woman holding awards

Two winners of the Donald J. White Award.

The Donald J. White Teaching Excellence Awards

The Donald J. White Teaching Excellence Awards program was established to underscore and reinforce the pursuit of teaching excellence among graduate Teaching Fellows and Teaching Assistants at Boston College. They are named in honor of former Dean of the Morrissey Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Donald J. White, who served from 1971 to 1994, and displayed a deep commitment both to graduate students and to teaching excellence across the School.

Every fall, the Office of the Provost determines each department or school's award allotment, based on the number of TAs and TFs in each department or school. The Center for Teaching Excellence reaches out to graduate program directors with their allotments, and each department or school determines their own process of selecting awardees. In the spring, the names of awardees are communicated to the Center for Teaching Excellence and those graduate students are invited to participate in the Graduate Student Teaching Recognition Ceremony later that semester.

The Apprenticeship In College Teaching Program

The ACT program prepares students for professional careers in the Academy by combining a series of teaching seminars with independent work conducting class observations and developing teaching materials. ACT seminars bring graduate students together across disciplines to engage important pedagogical questions, and classroom observations allow for discipline-specific discussion with faculty mentors in the student’s department. For further information about the program please visit the ACT web page.

Past Recipients

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