Teaching Assistant Mentorship
I normally work with a few select undergraduate TAs who demonstrated exceptional mastery in the previous course and who desire to help fellow students perform their best. I also usually have a graduate TA who handles some of the higher-end responsibilities (such as grading), but also contributes to mentoring students/undergraduate TAs. We usually make a pretty impressive team.
My relationships with my TAs are of utmost importance to me. Their jobs are not to just redirect students to the syllabus or respond to emails. My TAs go through a competitive selection process and are chosen only if A) I already have a cordial relationship with them beforehand, B) they understand the difficult nature of the course content, and C) they have a legitimate conviction to empower their peers.
Physio Psych TA team and me, fall 2019
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Short hike up South Mountain with TAs and some students
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My Intro Psych team, spring 2022
Kind words from TAs
"Dear Eevin, I was just looking over the TA evaluations and wanted to take a minute and thank you for being such a good TA supervisor. With the stress of switching to on-line classes and the stress of a pandemic it was so nice to see students praising the efforts of their supervising faculty members and seeing their TA experiences as successful. So- I just wanted to write to the faculty who were appreciated so much by their students and add my thank you. Hope that you and your family are well and safe."
-Laurie Chassin, Director of Graduate Studies, 2020
"I hope your summer is going well and that you've been both safe and healthy! I was just accepted into the program and will be working towards my PsyD this fall. Thank you again for all of your help along the way. I'm so glad that I ended up taking your class and that you then selected me to be your TA the next year. It was a highlight of my undergrad experience and taught me that I want to teach using my doctorate at some point in the future. I couldn't have gotten into this program without that position and your letter of rec. I'm so grateful for all that you've done for me!"
-Catrina, my first UTA
-Laurie Chassin, Director of Graduate Studies, 2020
"I hope your summer is going well and that you've been both safe and healthy! I was just accepted into the program and will be working towards my PsyD this fall. Thank you again for all of your help along the way. I'm so glad that I ended up taking your class and that you then selected me to be your TA the next year. It was a highlight of my undergrad experience and taught me that I want to teach using my doctorate at some point in the future. I couldn't have gotten into this program without that position and your letter of rec. I'm so grateful for all that you've done for me!"
-Catrina, my first UTA
Teaching Mentorship
TTU Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center Groundwork Program, 2016 - 2017
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Research Assistant Mentorship
In graduate school, I recruited, managed, trained, and mentored my own teams of undergraduate research assistants. At one point I had about 15 RAs! My department jokingly referred to them as My Horde, mainly because most labs only recruited 1 or 2 RAs. Leading and managing these teams was one of the most rewarding parts of the research experience, especially when they expressed interest in independent studies or started attending conferences with me. I learned how to lead people with varying backgrounds, found my management style, learned when to nudge/push back, and when to stand back and let failure take its course (which was admittedly VERY challenging for me). In turn, my RAs grew as scholars and young professionals. I was proud beyond words.
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Psi Chi Mentorship
Throughout my tenure at TTU, I mentored undergraduate students in various pursuits, such as career options, research experience, applying to graduate school, writing tips, interviews, etc. I also gave and arranged guest talks and aided in recruitment/attendance.
Sometimes I would bring the birds to a meeting.