What a start to the new semester and academic year! It’s been very busy with new project and responsibilities, but already learned so much and am excited to see how the rest of the semester unfolds. This academic year is my first year being one of the Lead Graduate Teaching Associates (GTA) for our first-year program after many years of being a GTA here. I love getting to work with students, help them get hands-on with engineering skills and content, and helping them find what they enjoy. While I still get to do that with my students this semester, one thing I didn’t realize before taking on this new position was how much goes on behind the scenes to get everything in order before a new academic year begins! With my new position, I was a part of the team that helped to do this and saw first-hand how we get things ready for our students before they come to OSU. It was interesting to get this perspective since this marks 10 (!!) years since my first year at OSU as an undergraduate engineering student. 10 years ago, I never would have guessed I’d be working on my PhD and teaching engineering students at OSU and while I’m very happy with this decision, I find it fascinating to think about where we first think we’re going to go with our lives and where we actually end up based on who we become along the way.
Over the course of the next academic year, I’m excited to build new skills that help me to support my GTAs and all undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) in supporting their students’ growth. I still think back to the GTAs, UTAs, and instructors I had as a student in the first-year program and how my experience was shaped by the amazing role models I had during this time. I hope I’ve been able to do the same for my own students and will help prepare our teams now to do the same for their students!
With all the new things starting up this year, one thing will certainly hold steady – making progress on my dissertation. I began working on it over the summer and am looking forward to finalizing my interview protocol and getting some interview practice in this semester. One thing that I really like about pursuing a PhD that also differs from other degrees is that you have the opportunity to implement so much of what you learn from mentors and in classes. A lot of times in engineering technical coursework, you learn different concepts, theories, and equations, but depending on your job or career track, you may not put all of it into practice. With my PhD, I catered the classes I took and the knowledge I pursued so that it was something that would be implemented either in my dissertation or my future career working with engineering students. I think this is something that enhanced my motivation to not only pursue this degree, but also to complete it and I’m excited to see what new things and skills I learn from my dissertation along the way!