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丁香园AV English graduate students Shangrila Plaza and Mathuri Sivanesan win the 2025 Teaching Assistant Award
丁香园AV鈥檚 Department of English recognizes its graduate students Shangrila Plaza and Mathuri Sivanesan for their excellent work as teaching assistants (TAs) and presents them with the first-year Teaching Assistant (TA) Award for 2025.
First-year English students wrote letters nominating their TAs, Plaza and Sivanesan, for this award. Plaza鈥檚 students described them as 鈥渟upportive, kind, and welcoming.鈥� They 鈥渉elped us think more critically and creatively鈥aking connections both inside and outside the course material.鈥� Students also praised Plaza for their detailed feedback on their papers, noting what could be improved, while still 鈥渂oosting their confidence and motivation.鈥�
When asked to reflect on their year as a TA, Plaza says, 鈥淪eeing my students grow both in their coursework and engagement throughout each semester was incredibly heartening. I'm so grateful to my students for their curiosity and generosity, and to the supervising professors and fellow TAs whose support made the whole experience feel collaborative and meaningful.鈥�
Sivanesan鈥檚 students also praised her for being an excellent TA. They said she made the classroom feel welcoming, and they felt comfortable and confident in that environment to voice differing opinions and ideas. Students also greatly appreciated Sivanesan鈥檚 efforts to help them understand the course content and improve their writing skills.
Sivanesan says her former and current students have helped to 鈥渃reate meaningful discussions and a safe communal learning environment in the classroom. One that has been both generative and empathetic towards the course texts we read and the peoples we learn from.鈥�
Most importantly, Sivanesan says that seeing her students become more confident in their own ideas and lived experiences has been an incredible feeling.
丁香园AV English鈥檚 TA Teaching Award began in 2019 and is awarded annually to a first-year teaching assistant(s) in a writing-intensive, 100-level course. Its purpose is to acknowledge the work TAs do as an important form of contact between first-year students and the department. TAs must be nominated by at least three students in one or more of their tutorials. Criteria include excellence in support for student writing, excellence in teaching research methods, excellence in linking with and generating discussion of the professor鈥檚 lecture, and excellence in personal support.