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 2024 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

Sainath Parmani

Department: Information and Operations Management
Degree: Master’s Student
Research Interests: Ethics in Artificial Intelligence, Privacy by Design in Information Systems
Favorite Educational Quote: "Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today." - Malcolm X

Graduate Teaching Consultants

Andrew Eberlein

Department: Physics and Astronomy
Degree: Ph.D. student
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

Fatima Mahnaz

Department: Chemical Engineering
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Thermo-catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide to value-added fuels and chemicals
Favorite Educational Quote:“Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.” - William Arthur Ward

Jean Ferguson

Department: Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences
Degree: Ph.D. student
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

Kelly Shipman

Department: Hispanic Studies Program
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Hispanic and Latinx Film, Women in War/the Military and Visual Culture of the Spanish-speaking world.
Favorite Educational Quote:"One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world." -Malala Yousafzai

Madison Weinrich

Department: Kinesiology and Sport Management
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Bimanual coordination for special populations & neurophysiological mechanisms for motor control and learning
Favorite Educational Quote:"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn" - Benjamin Franklin

Mayson Astle

Department: Psychological and Brain Sciences
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Psychological and cognitive impacts of choices, self-enhancement, and self-regulation.
Favorite Educational Quote: "Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one." - Malcolm S. Forbes

Magda Rodriguez

Department: Global Languages and Cultures
Degree: Ph.D. student in Hispanic Studies
Research Interests: Latinx Literature, Chicanx Literature, Borderlands Narratives of the U.S.-Mexico Border, Bilingualism
Favorite Educational Quote: "Education is not the filling of the pail but the lighting of a fire." - William Butler Yeates

Nilson Chapagain

Department: Statistics
Degree:Ph.D. student
Research Interests: My research interests include Bayesian statistics, large language models (LLMs), and dynamic treatment regimes (DTR).
Favorite Educational Quote: "It's not where you come from, it's where you're going that counts." - Ella Fitzgerald

Paige Williams

Department: Educational Psychology, Developmental Sciences emphasis
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: Risky play behaviors and emotional regulation during early childhood
Favorite Educational Quote:"We can do this. We're educators. We're born to make a difference." –Rita Pierson

Sungjun Yoon

Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Degree: Ph.D. student
Research Interests: High performance analog-to-digital converters for next generation wireless communication systems
Favorite Educational Quote: "The purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows" - Sydney J. Harris