The A&S Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching Award was created in 2022 to recognize dedicated, outstanding teaching by graduate students in the College who have distinguished themselves by the care they have given and the excellence they have shown in meeting their instructional responsibilities. The purpose of this award is to recognize the best of our graduate teaching assistants and to highlight the significant contributions A&S graduate students make to educating students at the University of Louisville.

• One $400 award will be given out annually each spring on behalf of the College of A&S.
• The A&S winner and three finalists will be forwarded as nominees for the university-wide award, which will be selected by the Graduate School each spring.

Eligibility: Graduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences who have instructional duties assigned as part of their graduate contract (e.g., as GTA, Instructor of Record) are eligible. Students must have taught for at least two semesters to receive an award.

Who can nominate? Students can self-nominate (but must include a letter of endorsement from your program), and of course, faculty (mentors, course directors) in the program may also nominate students. 

Applications should address the following instructional skills and provide evidence for these skills when possible:

• Excellence in meeting the responsibilities of their teaching assistantship
• Ability to encourage critical thinking as well as disciplinary understanding
• Use of inclusive teaching methods to meet students where they are
• Excellent organizational skills, course management, and creativity and enthusiasm for teaching
• Willingness to solicit and reflect upon feedback about teaching and to develop and implement improvement plans

Nomination applications must include the following:

1. Completed online nomination form below
2. Brief letter of nomination from the Program Director or Department Chair
3. GTA Application, provided by the nominee and comprised of the minimum requirements listed below (files should be combined into a single PDF; multiple files will not be accepted):

• Student’s Teaching Philosophy (no more than 2 pages)
• List of teaching responsibilities at UofL; include the scope of responsibility (primary or secondary instructor; lab assistant; grader; online instructor)
• Summary of student teaching evaluation scores for all courses for which the student received STES; if official STES do not exist, copies of informal evaluations may be substituted
• Teaching artifact designed by the student (one example only, such as a syllabus, lab assignment, lesson plan, homework assignment or classroom activity, quiz, etc.). Student may include an explanation of why they designed the artifact as they did, but it may not be longer than one page.
• Recommendation(s) from course director or faculty member(s) who oversaw the teaching of the course(s) (need not be more than a single page)