As this academic year comes to an end, we would like to express our appreciation to the 2024-2025 Graduate Teaching Fellows. We’re grateful for their dedication and invaluable work.
We asked them to reflect on a memorable aspect of the fellowship:
Emily Wieder, Department of French & Italian, Ph.D. Candidate in French and Francophone World Studies
My TILE teaching demo will be the most memorable aspect of this fellowship! I really enjoyed putting into practice so much of what we had been reading and discussing. For example, we focused on crafting clear learning objectives and activities/assessments to measure those objectives, which I implemented in my demo. I also got to imagine what it would be like to teach the class I am dreaming up as part of our syllabus design project. My workshop was the highlight because I could see how much I learned this year and because I had a beautiful opportunity to collaborate more with the Center for Teaching. Overall, this fellowship has opened so many doors and given me new energy for teaching!
Lucy Langmack, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Ph.D. Candidate
The graduate teaching fellowship has been one of the most enriching experiences of my graduate school career. Katherine and the other fellows are some of the most genuine people I've met at Iowa who believe whole-heartedly in the value of education. It has been an honor to learn with them and through them. I was able to create a syllabus and learn new methods of teaching that (I hope) will have a long-lasting impact on my future students. I will put these skills to the test by teaching my newly designed first-year seminar in the fall! I would never have had this opportunity without this fellowship. I'm forever grateful.
Kit Fynaardt, Department of Mathematics, Ph.D. Candidate
Hearing everyone's stories. The fellows were picked from across different disciplines, departments, and programs, yet there were many similarities between our experiences. The amount of learning on the job that grad students have to do, the strangeness of having students and being a student at the same time, and the never-ending winding road of research were all touchstones of everyone's story. These similarities helped us find common ground when discussing teaching. Finding a community of people from other departments who understand why it is so important to improve as a teacher was a very fulfilling experience.
Yetunde Mabadeje, Ph.D. Student in Learning Sciences and Educational Psychology
One of the most memorable aspects of being a Teaching Fellow has been the opportunity to engage in rich, honest conversations about pedagogical issues within a supportive and intellectually diverse community. This fellowship created a true no-judgment zone—a space where unpolished ideas were welcomed, where feedback was always constructive and never critical. I especially valued how the group served as a thinking partner for our individual projects, offering insights that pushed individual ideas further while affirming its relevance.
Having a place to freely share my ideas and get input on my project in a way that felt both safe and intellectually stimulating made a huge difference. It’s rare to find a space in academia that balances true reflection, experimentation of ideas, and support so well, and I’m incredibly grateful to have been part of this amazing group of people. Being a teaching fellow didn’t just support my teaching—it reshaped how I think about teaching in collaboration with others.
Jamie Chen, Department of English, Ph.D. Candidate in English Literature
Our discussions every two weeks gave me an opportunity to set aside time to read pedagogical research, and to discuss it with graduate instructors from a wide range of different disciplines. Although my program offers steady mentorship to instructors in Rhetoric and General Education Literature, my training and cohort has always been very discipline-specific—this fellowship allowed me to take a step back and consider how I would explain my practice to my colleagues in other fields. Considering what we teach and how we teach is different has prepared me for the job market and given me a better understanding of what it is I do in English literary studies.
Abigail Escatel, Department of Communications Studies, Ph.D. Candidate
I really enjoyed the bi-weekly meeting with other teaching fellows. I gained so many new ideas, received regular affirmations, and personal feedback from my peers across various disciplines. I would have likely never met these scholars if it wasn't for this program.