The Elm

The new Graduate Teaching Assistantship (GTA) program is a collaborative initiative between Academic Affairs, the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (FCTL), and UMB schools to support teaching-focused student assistantships across campus.

The first cohort of GTA students includes students from Pharmacy, Nursing, Medicine, Dentistry, and the Graduate School. One-year appointments began Sept. 1. GTA Elvira N. Carias, a student in the Forensic Medicine Master's Program, working under the direction of Dr. Ling Li at the School of Medicine, states, “My goal is to become a forensic pathologist, and I will use my opportunity as a GTA to aid my future endeavors of mentoring students in my specialty.”

Shankia “Kia” Mardenborough, a master’s student in the Regulatory Science Program, says, “I am excited to be in the GTA program because I always had a passion for supporting student learning and teaching, and being in this program will afford me the opportunity to do so.” Mardenborough is under the direction of Jenny Owens, assistant dean and associate professor of the University of Maryland Graduate School.

In the program, GTAs will learn about teaching by providing support to faculty in online teaching and course material development and participating in a monthly learning community with their mentors and the executive director of the FCTL, Dr. Christina Cestone. During the events, we will talk about a variety of teaching and learning topics, such as privacy, academic integrity and accessibility issues in online learning, quality rubrics and standards, and educational evidence about “what works” from the learning sciences.

GTAs and their mentors participated in a virtual kick-off meeting Sept. 11. To meet our full inaugural cohort of GTAs, please click here.