2021 Graduate Student Teaching Awards

Recognizing Graduate Student Teaching in 2021

Congratulations to this year’s Apprenticeship in College Teaching (ACT) Program graduates and Donald J. White Teaching Excellence Award winners! While we are unable to gather in person this year to recognize graduate student teaching, this page recognizes the graduate students who received certificates this year. You will find brief videos of congratulations, reflections from ACT Program graduates and praise about White Award winners from faculty, and a list of all the graduate students being recognized. Faculty mentors are invited to reach out to graduate instructors in their respective programs to offer their personal congratulations.

Congratulations from Vice Provost Billy Soo and CTE Executive Director Stacy Grooters

Apprenticeship in College Teaching (ACT) Program Graduates

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 page.

2021 ACT Grads

Ella Anghel (LSEHD)

Lynn Berardelli (STM)

Jonathan Cahill (Theology)

Kahlil DuPerry (LSEHD)

Miriam Gates (LSEHD)

Aimee Hein (Theology)

Tiffany Lee (Theology)

Lazarus Onuh (STM)

Haerin Park (LSEHD)

Jennifer Peeler (Chemistry)

Smitha Rao (SSW)

Jonathan Sepulveda (LSEHD)

Mitchell Strzepek (LSEHD)

Giridaran Subramaniam (Economics)

Rachel Walker (Psychology and Neuroscience)

Reflective essay quotes from some of this year's graduates

“I have changed my traditional approach to wrapping up a class. I now provide both clear and specific takeaways from the class and reiterate questions with which we will continue to grapple.”

“I hope to use what I have learned and produced through this program to remind myself of what is important when I teach and for who I am as an educator as I move through my career.”
“[T]he process of preparing the [teaching] portfolio was helpful in reviewing my teaching experiences in advance of preparing my applications and attending interviews.”

“Overall, the ACT program ... has spurred me on to understanding teaching as a constant learning experience.”
“Alongside workshops on topics such as trauma-informed teaching, these conversations have given me a set of tools that help me feel more prepared to teach a wide variety of students whose needs and experiences will vary.”

“In particular, the seminars I took in the program helped me think through how my approach in the classroom can meet pedagogical goals, how classroom culture impacts my students, and how to effectively collaborate with my colleagues.”

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. For further information about the White Awards please visit the Graduate Student Teaching Recognition Ceremony page.

Professional Schools (Carroll School of Management, Connell School of Nursing, Law School, Lynch School of Education and Human Development)

Luke Hedden (CSOM)

Katlyn Noonan (CSON)

Savanna Arral (Law)

Kaitlin Martin (Law)

Stephanie Carroll (LSEHD)

Michael Di Bianca (LSEHD)

So Lim Kim (LSEHD)

Claudia Kruzik (LSEHD)

Olivia Szendey (LSEHD)

Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences

Humanities (English, History, Philosophy, Romance Languages and Literatures, Theology)

Jocelyn Rice (English)

Kristen Walczak (English)

Rachel Brody (History)

Colin Notis-McConarty (History)

Isaiah Sterrett (History)

Magnus Ferguson (Philosophy)

Vicente Muñoz-Reja (Philosophy)

Lydia Winn (Philosophy)

Rumi Handen (RLL)

Caroline Maniscalco (RLL)

María Belén Melena Moya (RLL)

Domenik Ackermann (Theology)

Aimee Hein (Theology)

Tiffany Lee (Theology)

Laurel Potter (Theology)

Social Sciences (Economics, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology)

Divya Bhagia (Economics)

Ilaria D'Angelis (Economics)

Haydar Emin Evren (Economics)

Cristián Figueroa (Economics)

Jean Francois Gauthier (Economics)

Priyanka Sarda (Economics)

Vera Sharunova (Economics)

Nicholas Anderson (Political Science)

Nathan Davis (Political Science)

Adam Sliwowski (Political Science)

Rory Womack (Political Science)

Anthony Djerdjaj (Psychology)

Danielle Lafferty (Psychology)

Xiaorui Huang (Sociology)

STEM (Biology, Chemistry, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Math, Physics)

Melody Harper (Biology)

Jingjing Lou (Biology)

Zoey Wallis (Biology)

Ricky Alvarado (Chemistry)

Shawn Ng (Chemistry)

Kevin Byrne (Chemistry)

Cristina Cheng (Chemistry)

Casey Howshall (Chemistry)

Wei-Shang Lo (Chemistry)

Kasey Cannon (EES)

Megan Kopp (EES)

Ethan Farber (Math)

Antony (Tsz Hin) Fung (Math)

Yusheng Lei (Math)

Linden Hayes (Physics)

Jared Rogers (Physics)

Alenna Streeter (Physics)

Quotes from faculty about some of this year's awardees

“[She] is skilled at identifying how and why students are stuck, and determining when they need guidance through a difficult concept, a gentle push, or encouragement and confidence boosting.”

“His deep concern for the welfare of his students shines through his teaching. He is also a leader among our graduate students on issues of fairness, equity and good teaching practices.”
“He prepares for meetings and his classes with equal thoroughness and attention to detail, and has developed a very effective approach to teaching without compromising high expectations.”

“His attention to the particular views that students expressed and his follow-up with them, providing them in-depth responses to their inquiries, made him a stand out.”
“I also observed someone not only extremely intelligent but also warm, attentive, and considerate (especially with students who were having personal difficulties during a Covid semester).”

“[S]he came across as a completely seasoned teacher, comfortable, poised, in command of the material, and exuding an authenticity that clearly resonated with the students.”