Centennial Teaching Assistant Awards to honor 37 teaching assistants in array of disciplines
Thirty-seven teaching assistants in disciplines ranging from art and art history to sociology will receive Centennial Teaching Assistant (CTA) Awards during a ceremony June 12. The awards honor outstanding instruction by teaching assistants in the schools of Humanities and Sciences, Earth Sciences, and Engineering. Each recipient will receive a certificate and $500 prize.
In 1989, psychology Professor Ewart Thomas launched the program when he was dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences (H&S) to recognize the important role that teaching assistants play at Stanford. Each year, half of the departments in H&S are invited to choose from one to four graduate student teachers  depending on the size of the department  to receive the CTA honor, said Linda Salser, program manager at the Center for Teaching and Learning. All departments in the schools of Engineering and Earth Sciences may nominate teaching assistants, from which two to seven awardees are chosen. The selection is regarded as a process, not a competition, that recognizes outstanding teaching assistants over time, Salser said. The CTA program in H&S is endowed by gifts from university supporters and alumni. The new Centennial Teaching Assistants are:
School of Humanities and Sciences
Art and Art History: Hsuan Tsen and Susan Witt
Chemistry: Davida Brown, Jennifer Schwartz and Travis Williams
Classics: Donald Lavigne
German Studies: Alys George and Kristin Rebien
History: Jennifer Derr and Natalia Mehlman
Human Biology: Megan Corty and Matthew Waddell
Music: Nathan Breitling and Jessica Payette
Philosophy: Daniel Corbett and Randall Harp
Physics: Stephen Healey, Alexander Saltman and Patrick Zwick
Political Science: Matthew Levendusky, Todd Sechser and Julie Won
Psychology: Bridgette Martin, Kelly McGonigal, Felicity Miao and Daniel Yarlett
Slavic Languages and Literatures: Elif Batuman
Sociology: Sean Everton and Heili Pals
School of Earth Sciences
Earth Systems: Rebecca Ann Katz and Duncan Richard Atkinson-Hager
Geophysics: Stephen Moysey
School of Engineering
Chemical Engineering: Victor Beck and Matt Siegel
Computer Science: Justin Manus
Electrical Engineering: Keyvan Mohajer and David Black-Schaffer
