The award, jointly sponsored by the Graduate School and the Office of the Vice Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Education, recognizes graduate student teaching assistants for superior instruction in the areas of physical science and engineering, life sciences, social and behavioral sciences, and the arts and humanities. The awardees receive $500 and a framed certificate.

The selection committee judges nominees on several criteria, including effectiveness of their presentations, use of clear and fair evaluation procedures, accessibility to their students, and sensitivity to individual differences in the classroom.

The 2001 winners are: Prasad Balkundi, management and organization; Peter R. Costello, philosophy; Jonathan U. Dougherty, architectural engineering; Jhan D. Doughty, counselor education; Heather J. McConnell, physiology; John D. (Jack) Richardson, art education; Linda B. Smolka, mathematics; Leah A. Wasser, landscape architecture; Beth Widmaier, English; and Jill M. Wood, biobehavioral health and women’s studies.

Balkundi has taught courses in advanced human resources management and leadership and motivation. His nominators praised him for his creativity in going beyond standard lectures to maintain student interest and excitement in the classroom. His methods to achieve this interest include having students analyze movies for underlying organizational behavior themes, encouraging them to keep diaries about experiences that are related to issues raised in class, and exposing them to the latest relevant research in the field.

Costello’s teaching assignments have ranged from an introductory philosophy course to an upper level course on medical ethics. He has garnered recognition for keeping students involved in courses even outside the classroom, for instance by managing a list-serve for discussion of works used in a course on the philosophy of art and film. With an emphasis on the Socratic teaching style and class participation, he is known for skillfully managing a heavy teaching load at the same time as developing his dissertation on the nature of human communication.

Dougherty has sole responsibility for an architectural engineering course on working drawings, and was instrumental in a recent redesign and reorganization of the course. A champion of the importance of outreach to pre-college-aged students on behalf of the building industry, he is also known in his department for spearheading an annual charitable initiative for local needy families. He is active with the College of Engineering Graduate Council and is a past president of the Penn State Student Society of Architectural Engineers.

In the Department of Counselor Education, Counseling Psychology and Rehabilitation Services, Doughty is active in teaching rehabilitation case recording and management, and has helped teach three other courses. Her nominators applaud her skills in the classroom, advising and internship coordination environments. She expects to graduate this semester, having completed a doctoral thesis on the effect of an educational program on adjustment in women with multiple sclerosis, and authored or co-authored at least three papers that appeared in refereed journals.

McConnell has overseen several undergraduate laboratories as part of the joint teaching assistant program of the Department of Biology and the physiology program, as well as guest-lectured for a physiology lecture course. She has co-authored two papers on the association of disordered eating and menstrual irregularities in the journal Medical Science and Sports Exercise. Her nominators point out her improvements in the process of grading students’ lab reports and her willingness to work with students outside the classroom as signs of her dedication to the field.

Richardson is the primary teacher and organizer for a general education lecture/studio course on concepts and creation in the visual arts that is offered to all levels of students. He focuses on the ways contemporary works of art raise important societal, artistic and aesthetic issues, and is known for incorporating new art-related issues into the course as they emerge. The course culminates with students displaying their works of art--either installations or performance pieces--in public spaces, a challenge which Richardson’s student nominators thank him for supporting them in.

Smolka has taught courses in college trigonometry, multivariable calculus and vector analysis, and ordinary and partial differential equations, as well as served as a teaching fellow for the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. Previously a high school teacher, she was praised by her nominators for maintaining a positive atmosphere among fellow teachers and providing real-world examples of applications of course materials. She has also taught for the Women in Engineering Program and supervised calculus tutors for the Sperling-Cohen Tutoring Program.

Wasser is pursuing the watershed stewardship option in landscape architecture, and recently led a section of a design theory studio/seminar course and assisted with a history of landscape architecture course. Her research focus on social considerations in watershed planning is reflected in a co-authored paper about Lititz, Pennsylvania, in the August 2000 Landscape Architecture magazine. She earned an outstanding leadership and service award from her department, and praises from her nominators for this latest award regarding her constructive criticism and motivating presence in the classroom.

Widmaier’s instructional experience includes seven different English and American studies courses ranging in topics from rhetoric and composition to popular culture. Known for inspiring student participation in class and for approaching themes in an interdisciplinary manner, she has also been involved in the women’s studies program for her minor. Her course goals include challenging students to investigate the relevance of individual works to their lives and how the pedagogical process shapes them to be intelligent, active citizens.

Wood teaches a biobehavioral health course focused on knowledge change and behavior change related to human sexuality, and has also assisted with other courses in biobehavioral health and women’s studies. Her nominators laud Wood’s ability to present complex material to students in an understandable, sensitive and interactive manner. In addition to this year’s graduate teaching assistant award, she was awarded a citation for the best student paper presentation at a recent national conference of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality.

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