06/25/92

CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (650) 723-2558

Students honored for teaching at Stanford

STANFORD -- Twenty-eight Stanford University students were presented the third annual Centennial TA (Teaching Assistant) Awards at a Commencement Weekend ceremony.

The TAs, students who help teach undergraduates in the schools of Humanities and Sciences, Earth Sciences and Engineering, were honored June 13 at a ceremony attended by the deans of those schools -- Ewart A.C. Thomas, W. Gary Ernst and James F. Gibbons.

Thomas conceived the awards in 1989, saying he felt teaching assistants should be part of the celebration of Stanford's centennial. A gift from the late John A. Ditz, a Stanford alumnus and former member of the Board of Trustees, and his wife, Ann, provided initial funding for the program. The Centennial Organizing Committee also contributed.

While initially developed for the School of Humanities and Sciences, the program was immediately expanded by Ernst and Gibbons into the other two schools that award undergraduate degrees.

At the ceremony, Thomas reconfirmed his commitment to the program and said he would continue to work toward his goal of getting the program endowed.

In addition to the teaching awards, the program also provides grants for TA training programs within H&S. Thus far this year, grants (a maximum of $2,500 each) have been awarded to the departments of philosophy, modern thought and literature, and Spanish and Portuguese.

During his presentation, Gibbons noted that one of his school's graduate students, Paul Dankoski of electrical engineering, had been unhappy with his first experience at teaching, then approached the Center for Teaching and Learning, which administers the TA training grants, for assistance. Working with Mark Gonnerman, the center's coordinator of teaching assistant training and a graduate student in religious studies, Dankoski learned to teach well enough to be one of the 28 students singled out for praise.

The 1991-92 Centennial TAs in the School of Humanities and Sciences and their departments are:

Hilary J. Arnold, chemistry; Andrew Bell, classics; Hasok Chang, philosophy; Steve Walter Cole, psychology; David Frank, sociology; Michael Gorham, Slavic languages and literatures; Greg Greenway, political science; David Hochron, physics; Robert Holtzapple, physics; Laurie Koloski, history; Richard Loring Marsh, psychology; Shelley McConnell, political science; Dan Miller, German studies; Sabine Pulver, chemistry; Theodore Quinn, physics; Michael P. Rosewall, music; Pablo Saez, physics; Susan Shadle, chemistry; Scott Aaron Van Duyne, music; James L. Wilbur, chemistry; Suzanne Wright, art; and Linda Zimmerman, art.

In the School of Earth Sciences:

Leslie Dillard, applied earth sciences; Jodi Junta, geology; and Maurice Stadler, petroleum engineering.

In the School of Engineering:

Paul C. Dankoski, electrical engineering; Hugh W. McGuire, computer science; and Thomas E. West, civil engineering.

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