Awards
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Comments on Behalf of All 2009 OGSI Recipients
Sara Atwood, OGSI Recipient, Mechanical Engineering
As I was reflecting on the recognition of Graduate Student Instructors at Berkeley, I realized that in my time here, many Berkeley faculty and students have been recognized for their accomplishments, sometimes even on the national stage. Dr. Smoot won the Nobel Prize for physics in 2006, seven young faculty members were awarded Sloan fellowships this year, and one of our own, Dr. Chu, was appointed the secretary of energy.
And look at our undergraduates – not only great students who will accomplish amazing things in the future, but also busy with many other activities. According to the 2007 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey, about half of undergraduates work during the school year, putting in an average of 12 hours per week. Over eighty percent participate in some form of recreational sports or exercise, averaging 7 hours a week. About half spend several hours a week on community service or volunteer activities. Not surprisingly, over 40% admit to experiencing some sleep deprivation.
So what is it about Berkeley that allows both professors and undergraduates to accomplish amazing things, while still maintaining a learning environment that consistently places Berkeley at the top of the public universities in the United States? Graduate student instructors. GSIs act as a bridge (to use an engineering metaphor) between busy faculty doing amazing research, and busy students contributing to an active campus life.
It may not be the most glamorous job: planning discussion sections, coming up with “fun” activities the students are hesitant to try at first, grading papers, holding review sessions, sometimes even helping students with graduate school applications or other classes. But those of us here today know that it is our passion, and that we are rewarded throughout the semester in many small ways: when a struggling student aces an exam, or when a student drops by to tell us he got a fellowship at his top-choice grad school, and was so excited the night he heard that he woke his family up to tell them.
For most of us here today, I think these little rewards are all that we need. For the luckiest of us, we also have a mentor who values our passion for teaching, recognizes our accomplishments, and rewards us by pushing us to do better. These mentors help us develop our teaching methods, expose us to new ideas, pass along teaching journals and send us to education conferences, and most importantly, share with us the tips and trade secrets they have learned throughout their careers.
So, with all this in mind, I would like to thank the GSI Teaching and Resource Center and the Graduate Council Advisory Committee for GSI Affairs for recognizing the passion for teaching and the long hours put in by the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructors and the Outstanding Mentors of Graduate Student Instructors here today. While our efforts often are not rewarded with the world-wide fanfare accompanying a Nobel Prize, I think we can all claim a piece of every award conferred on Berkeley professors and students, because I think we are all a big part of making those achievements possible. Thank you.
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