In recognition of the central role of GSAS students in Harvard's teaching mission, the Graduate School joins with the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning every year to present the Derek C. Bok Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching of Undergraduates. Five TFs receive the award, selected from a long list of students nominated by their departments. Winners receive a $1,000 prize, from a gift by David G. Nathan '51, MD '55, the Robert A. Stranahan Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and his wife Jean Louise Friedman Nathan.
Meet the 2011 winners, honored by GSAS Dean Allan Brandt at a Bok Center ceremony at the end of the spring term. And view a list of GSAS TFs who won Certificates of Distinction this spring, based on high Q evaluations.
Katherine Baldiga
A PhD candidate in the Department of Economics, Katherine Baldiga is an accessible, approachable, reassuring teacher who inspires her students not just to learn, but to embark on the kinds of deep inquiries that help them to become scholars in their own right.
As a thesis leader this year, Katie's job was to train her undergraduates to do original research, rather than presentations or analyses of existing work. She guided her students down eight unique paths of their own choosing, writes Alberto Alesina, the Director of Graduate Studies in Economics. She oversaw empirical, experimental, and theoretical work, adapting her own style to the needs of the project and the student, while providing useful feedback on topics as diverse as consumer confidence, cell phone–related traffic accidents, the market for luxury goods, and work-life balance issues for women.
Katie also worked with Jerry Green, the John Leverett Professor in the University, to develop from scratch the materials for Economics 1070/2070, a course on normative economics, which had never been taught at the undergraduate level at Harvard. The course turned out to be the highest-rated undergraduate class in the department, and Katie the highest-rated TF. "Teaching is more than just clear presentations and well-written notes," writes Professor Green. "It is a multidimensional challenge. Katie excelled at all of it."
Rowan Dorin
Rowan Dorin, a PhD candidate in the Department of History, mastered the challenging environs of Professor Michael McCormick's large, broad-based General Education course, Societies of the World 41: Medieval Europe. Leading sections where TFs closely analyze with their students a primary source in translation that illuminates each week's lecture, Rowan "used his unique insights as a former undergraduate here to develop the perfect persona of teacher-scholar, gentle judge, and quiet co-conspirator with each student to help them succeed despite the demanding professor," writes Professor McCormick.
Rowan was an inventive discussion leader. "We had to tackle some seriously dense and difficult subjects and texts," one student wrote in evaluation, "but you had a lot of different activities with which to approach them, and I love that you encouraged fierce discussion, sometimes even letting us get slightly derailed by a good argument. At the same time, you kept the course focused and brisk, and encouraged everyone to feel comfortable voicing their opinions. I've never worked with a better or more enthusiastic TF."
Rowan was also a thorough respondent to each student's work. He even received praise in evaluations for his high standards, with one student commending him on the "hilarious and shocking" way in which he revealed "the real quality of my work (without grade inflation)."
Jennifer Hou
Physics PhD candidate Jennifer Hou distinguished herself on the outstanding team of TFs who helped Professor Michael Brenner develop his popular Science and Cooking course last fall in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. In planning for the class, the team held bi-weekly cooking parties to help develop lectures, labs, and homework, and Jen often led in these efforts, coming up with detailed strategies for the class and pushing for assignments to be as challenging as possible.
"In terms of teaching, Jen was nothing short of spectacular," Professor Brenner writes. Fifty students — including twenty who were not in one of her two sections — contributed to her 4.52 average evaluation. As one student wrote, "Jen puts everything she has into this class. Her office hours were supposed to end at 11 p.m. but she was often up until 1 or 2 a.m."
Another said Jen was "helpful at showing us how to tie the concepts learned in lecture to the labs and the homework. This made the class seem very cohesive and made the objectives of each week very clear."
Still another student singled out Jen's personal attentiveness. "She was truly concerned about all her students, and her infectious good vibes made the environment of lab all the more enjoyable. If I were related to Jen, she would be my favorite cousin."
Jack Huizenga
Jack Huizenga, a PhD candidate in the Department of Mathematics, has a passion for his field that shines through his creative teaching and enthusiastic engagement with students. In two semesters of teaching Multivariable Calculus Math 21a, he has drawn outstanding evaluations from students, who praise the clarity of his lesson plans and his down-to-earth and humorous style.
Holding busy office hours on the couches of the common area in the Math Department, Jack projects both the competence of an experienced teacher and the fresh perspective of a novice, writes Wilfried Schmid, the Dwight Parker Robinson Professor of Mathematics. "Jack has mastered the art of fostering within his sections a supportive and effective learning community, and his students have recognized that his classroom is the ideal setting in which to learn this difficult material," Professor Schmid says.
Jack was the only graduate student TF asked to give a course-wide midterm review session for all 250 students in Math 21a. The session was so successful that Jack was asked to give a second one before the final, and he posted his review materials and worksheets on his website, so they benefitted not only the students but the other TFs. He consistently finds time to help the new TFs understand how to anticipate the challenges of each week's material, and how to overcome them.
Viktoriia Liublinska
Viktoriia Liublinska, a fourth-year student in the Department of Statistics, has carried the statistical education of undergraduates in exciting and entirely new directions, according to Professors Xiou-Li Meng, Joseph Blitzstein, and Carl Morris.
As the Department Teaching Fellow in Statistics, Viktoriia has integrated research and teaching in a way that models her department's similar commitment. After having taken a leading role in implementing student-created video projects in the General Education course EM 16: Real-Life Statistics, Viktoriia then stepped up to become the first TF in the department to conduct a randomized experiment designed to compare the effectiveness of multimedia assignments like these to the more traditional problem-set — an area where pedagogical research is lacking.
Viktoriia deliberately challenges herself to TF for a different course each term. She's taught — and learned from — a larger cross-section of students than most TFs, and she's been able to cross-pollinate by applying ideas from one course to another.
Comments from her students make it clear how dedicated and caring she is. As one Gen Ed student writes, "She was always there for us — whether through office hours, sections, before class, after class, or e-mail. She was always accessible and so willing to help us understand."