Graduate Teaching Consultant Program

Program Overview

The Graduate Teaching Consultant Program supports the professional development in teaching of graduate students, and includes opportunities that support enhanced teaching experiences, as outlined in the Model of Graduate Student Professional Development in Teaching. GTCs are graduate students exhibiting pedagogical skills and knowledge within their disciplines. GTCs, under the supervision of the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), serve as instructional coaches and peer mentors to TAs across campus. GTCs are available to conduct classroom observations upon request. 

Learning Outcomes – Instructional Practice

Participants will…

• Demonstrate a variety of evidence-based teaching strategies
• Recognize the influence of situational factors (e.g., specific course context; learner and instructor characteristics) on course and lesson design decisions
• Discuss personal teaching philosophies (e.g., beliefs, formative experiences, and assumptions) and how philosophies influence
• Describe and recognize the value of learning communities, and how they impact student learning

 

Essential and Transferable Skills Development

Leadership; Teamwork; Critical and Creative thinking; Written and Oral Communication; Interpersonal and Intercultural Knowledge and Competence; Mentorship; and Management 

Nomination Process

The 2023 Call for GTC Nominations is open. To nominate an outstanding current or former teaching assistant in your department/college for the Graduate Teaching Consultant (GTC) program, please email the following to cte@tamu.edu.

• Student name (first and last)
• Student email address
• College, Department
• Brief statement specifying why you believe the nominee is qualified to be a GTC (100 words or less)

Up to 3 students from a department can be nominated! Following our receipt of your nomination email, the Center will email the nominees and provide them with a formal application for the GTC Program.

For more details, please click here: Overview and Eligibility.

GTC Support

Ana Emilia Nava

Department: Food Science and Technology
Degree: Ph.D. Student
Research Interests: New product development; nutraceuticals; sensory evaluation.
Favorite Educational Quote: "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." – Dr. Seuss

Graduate Teaching Consultants

Andrew Eberlein

Department: Physics and Astronomy
Degree: Physics PhD
Research Interests: Higher-dimensional rotating black hole spacetimes
Favorite Educational Quote: "The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts." - CS Lewis

Jean Ferguson

Department: Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences
Degree: Master of Science (expected graduation May 2022)
Research Interests: Motivation and Volunteerism in Youth-Serving Organizations
Favorite Educational Quote: "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled." Plutarch

Fariha Irshad

Department: Food Science and Technology
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Auditing and certification of foods and supply chain management to enhance Human Health and Quality of Life · Developing Functional Foods and Packaging 
Favorite Educational Quote: "The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it from you" by B.B king

Kristen Jaramillo

Department: Psychological and Brain Sciences
Degree: Ph.D. Student 
Research Interests: discrimination, intersectionality, diversity
Favorite Educational Quote: "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world" - Nelson Mandela

Rachelle Pedersen

Department: Teaching, Learning, and Culture
Degree: Ph.D. Curriculum & Instruction, Emphasis in Science and Engineering Education
Research Interests: Motivation and Social Influence; Identity Development; Broadening Participation in STEM
Favorite Educational Quote: "Through others we become ourselves" - Lev Vigotsky

Fizza Raza

Department:  Department of Sociology
Degree: PhD in Sociology
Research Interests:  Fizza Raza is a doctoral student in the department of Sociology with concentration in demography and public health. Her current research focuses on analysing the differentials in fertility trends for both South Asian populations and South Asian diaspora settled in the US. She has obtained a Masters in Population and Development from London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. She has previously worked as a consultant with World Bank and Population Council of Pakistan, in addition to working on several research projects with the University of Cambridge, UK and Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives, Pakistan.
Favorite Educational Quote: "Everything diminishes when it is used except knowledge" - Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Christianna Snyder

Department: English 
Degree: Ph.D. Candidate
Research Interests: Latinx/Mexican-American Literature, Chicana Feminism, Mestiza Consciousness, Multiethnic Literature, Transnational Literature, Borderlands Theory
Favorite Educational Quote: "For me, the...classroom remains a small piece of unclaimed territory....a kind of "si fuera posible" moment. If it were possible, what questions would we ask of our elders, our storytellers, our ancestors, our scribes and scientists?" --Cherríe Moraga