GRADUATE STUDENT TEACHING EXCELLENCE AWARDS
The Graduate School annually awards four, Graduate Student Teaching Excellence Awards to graduate students who have served as teaching assistants for at least two semesters. Winners are announced during Graduate Student Week at the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition and will be awarded certificates of recognition and cash prizes.
Award: Instructor of Record
Two awards are given to teaching assistants who have served as a teacher of record for at least one semester.
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Eligibility Criteria and Requirements:
- Must be a current graduate student.
- Must have teaching experience for at least two semesters from Fall 2023 through Fall 2025.
- At least one of those terms must be as instructor of record.
- The second term could be instructor of record, non-instructor of record, or assistantship in a student learning support unit such as the writing center, gross motor lab, the digital scholarship lab, etc.
- Evidence of exemplary course design.
- Evidence of excellent pedagogical approach(es) (e.g., instructional methods and techniques, assignment design, assessment of student learning, etc.).
- Evidence of student engagement that goes beyond standard expectations.
- Evidence of efforts to improve instruction and teaching effectiveness.
Application Requirements:
- Current CV.
- Teaching statement should explain how you implement your teaching philosophy and discuss successes and challenges in the classroom and efforts to improve. You may include MOCES scores if relevant (maximum two pages, single spaced).
- A supporting letter from one faculty member who has observed you teach as an instructor of record (maximum two pages, single-spaced). The letter should:
- Situate teaching experience in light of department teaching opportunities and responsibilities.
- Provide explicit evidence of how your teaching is meritorious beyond standard expectations in satisfying the evaluative criteria.
- A second letter from a supervising faculty or administrator who is familiar with your assistantship work (maximum one page, single-spaced).
- Supporting materials to include:
- A syllabus from term served as instructor of record.
- Two examples of course assignments you designed and used.
- No more than two additional examples to demonstrate how your teaching goes beyond standard expectations (e.g., examples of feedback on student work, materials to improve engagement of diverse students across learning styles and identity backgrounds, etc.).
Application Deadline:
January 30, 2026 by 11:59 p.m. (CT)
Application Submission:
Student submits application requirements via email to the Director of Graduate Studies for his/her program. Late submissions will not be accepted. Please indicate for which award you wish to be considered (Instructor of Record).
Award: Non-Instructor of Record
Two awards are given to teaching assistants who have served under a supervising faculty member or members for at least two semesters from Fall 2023 through Fall 2025.
- One award for discussion-based TA.
- One award for lab-based TA.
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Eligibility Criteria and Requirements:
- Must be a current graduate student.
- Must have served as a TA under a supervising faculty member or members for at least two semesters from Fall 2023 through Fall 2025.
- One term can be as assistant in a student learning support unit such as the writing center, gross motor lab, the digital scholarship lab, etc.
- Evidence of exemplary support of the supervising professor(s) and/or broader class that goes beyond standard expectations.
- Evidence of excellent pedagogical approaches (e.g., in facilitating discussion or in preparing lab notes and facilitating lab instruction).
- Evidence of student engagement that goes beyond standard expectations.
- Evidence of efforts to improve teaching effectiveness.
Application Requirements:
- Current CV.
- Teaching statement should explain how you implement your teaching philosophy and discuss successes and challenges in the classroom and efforts to improve (maximum two pages, single spaced).
- One supporting letter from a faculty member who has observed your teaching (maximum two pages, single-spaced). The letter should:
- Situate teaching experience in light of department teaching opportunities and responsibilities.
- Provide explicit evidence of how your support of the supervising professor(s) and student learning is meritorious beyond standard expectations in satisfying the evaluative criteria.
- A second letter from a supervising faculty or administrator who is familiar with your assistantship work (maximum one page, single-spaced).
- Supporting materials to include:
- Three examples of materials that you designed as evidence of exceptional support of student learning (e.g., materials for facilitating discussion on difficult topics, lab notes you prepared that engage multiple learning styles, materials to improve engagement of students across diverse identity backgrounds).
Application Deadline:
January 30, 2026 by 11:59 p.m. (CT)
Application Submission:
Student submits application requirements via email to the Director of Graduate Studies for his/her program. Late submissions will not be accepted. Please indicate for which award you wish to be considered.
Important Timeline (for both awards)
- Student submits application materials via email to the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) for his/her program by January 30, 2026
- The DGS will review and select the top nominee and send application materials for each award category by February 5, 2026, to the Graduate School via email to Melissa Econom (melissa.econom@marquette.edu).
- All top nominees will be sent to the committee for review on February 9, 2026.
- Finalists will be selected by the committee by February 16, 2026.
- The awardees will be announced at the Three Minute Thesis Competition: February 20, 2026.
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