Ph.D. students earn certificates from Graduate Teaching Academy

Six doctoral students in the Urban and Regional Science program at Texas A&M University honed their teaching skills this year while earning fellows certificates from the university’s Graduate Teaching Academy.

Bun Gyu Choi, Chunkuen Lee, Yi Luo, Youngre Noh, Yunmi Park and Edward L. Tarlton completed the professional development training program offered by the graduate student-led academy, which is supported by Texas A&M’s Office of Graduate Studies and the Center for Teaching Excellence.

“To earn the certificate, graduate students attend seminars on various aspects of college teaching, choose a faculty teaching mentor, conduct classroom observations and begin to create a teaching portfolio, including a sample syllabus and a teaching philosophy statement,” said Valerie Reiss, director of the GTA. “Our mission is to provide professional college teaching opportunities to graduate students.”

Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning faculty members Bruce Dvorak, Chanam Lee, George Rogers, Jesse Saginor and Nancy Volkman served as mentors to the URS students.

Geoffrey Booth, coordinator of the Master of Science in Land Development program, served as a 2010-11 GTA panelist. During an academy workshop, he talked to academy members about how his Introduction to Land Development Class is an example of implementing “ [Education First] (http://provost.tamu.edu/strategic-planning-2010/Action2015-LOWRES_read_out_loud.pdf) ,” Texas A&M’s strategic plan that calls for a mix of teaching, research and service missions that develops a new model for an American university while building on the foundation of the old model.

Students and mentors were honored during the GTA’s annual awards banquet April 18, 2011.