I have benefited immensely from generations of graduate instructors before me, and I am determined to pay it forward. I share all my teaching materials (examples, aids, activities) and grading tools with my fellow instructors, especially with graduate assistants who are new to the job. I also mentor upcoming graduate instructors on practical, ready-to-use skills from ice-breaking to communication to classroom management.
As a graduate researcher, I am keenly aware that I acquired most of my skills in conducting empirical research through exposure to diverse lab activities and hands-on experiences with data, techniques, and analysis. Every semester, I mentor 2~3 undergraduates on building experiences and skills in data collection, literature search, and basic data analysis, intending to offer a holistic understanding of the process of research.
Among them two students stand out, whom I witnessed growing from starry-eyed sophomore psych majors to bona fide young investigators, engineering scanner tasks, manipulating NIFTI images, testing hypothesis and citing statistics. When long-term research assistantships finally came to fruition where they completed their respective senior individual projects on individual differences related to affective vulnerabilities and emotional memory, their achievements did not go unnoticed.
Both students were recognized by departmental awards -- Manny Donchin Award for an Outstanding Undergraduate Student (2015) and Laura Bolton Research Development Award (2017), respectively -- for outstanding undergraduate scholarly work.