It has been an extremely difficult year in higher education, and our graduate students have been severely impacted. Not only are they teachers, researchers, and students themselves, but they also may be partners, parents, and caregivers. Members of the CTL’s Lead Graduate Student Fellowship program have been there for campus’ graduate students and postdoctoral fellows over this past year to help guide them through the difficulties and uncertainties. Through it all, the 50 Leads have shown resilience, empathy and compassion. Through their implementation of discipline specific support for teaching as well as community building efforts, they have been amazing examples of what graduate students on our campus can be for each other and our students. We commend their efforts and recognize them all individually.
With the academic year 2021-2022, we welcome our 29th cohort of Leads. The program has expanded through additional support from individual departments, and Leads will continue to provide the much needed support for graduate student teaching on our campus. These incoming graduate leaders are an integral part of the CTL’s mission. The CTL Leads will continue the legacy of those before them by exemplifying the five aspects of the fellowship:
- Academic Management – Balancing the responsibilities of their graduate careers while introducing a service component to their own professional development.
- Academic Leadership – Providing support to new and continuing graduate students through a small departmental project around teaching and learning.
- Consultation – Conducting non-evaluative peer observations of teaching for their colleagues through the CTL’s Video Teacher Consultation (VTC) process.
- College Teaching – Participating in CTL training, attending CTL events, observing others teaching and conducting their own discipline-specific workshop(s).
- Collaboration – Designing and facilitating one interdisciplinary workshop for the CTL with Leads from other departments.